Journal articles on the topic 'Administrative agencies – France'

Most comparative studies of public strategies for competitiveness focus on the links between public agencies and industrial sectors. This paper argues that the professions—or knowledge-bearing elites—that animate these organizational links are equally significant. For public policies to promote technological advance, the visions and self-images of knowledge-bearing elites are particularly important. By examining administrative and technical elites in France and Germany in the 1980s, the paper identifies characteristics that enable these elites to implement policy in some cases but not in others. France's “state-created” elites were well positioned to initiate and implement large technology projects, such as digitizing the telecommunications network. By contrast, Germany's state-recognized elites were better positioned to facilitate framework-oriented programs aimed at the diffusion of new technologies throughout industry. The linkages between administrative and technical elites also explain why French policymakers had difficulty adapting policy to changing circumstances over time, whereas German policymakers managed in many cases to learn more from previous policy experiences and to adapt subsequent initiatives accordingly.

The article discusses some of the features, showing that experts distinguish the following models of institutional organization of budgetary control: parliamentary control, administrative control, judicial control. Parliamentary control in the field of Finance to produce to the Commission or parliamentary committees or audit bodies, for example, the chamber. Exercising budgetary control committees have certain features in different States as the order of the information and competence. Administrative and financial control in the public sectors the head of state, government and specialized bodies, in addition, ministries and agencies. Judicial financial control in the public sector carry out so-called judicial or quasi-judicial bodies, for example, the court of accounts in France, Italy, Spain etc.

Looking at Swiss administrative law from a Quebec perspective, this paper outlines some aspects of the Swiss system that provide useful models or references for the discussion and resolution of current issues in Canadian and Quebec administrative law. These issues are identified as (1) the proliferation of independent administrative agencies, and the means to control or at least systematize the growth of such structures ; (2) the desirability and feasibility of enacting general standards of procedure for administrative action ; (3) the simplification of remedies in the field of judicial review of administrative action ; (4) the desirability and feasibility of allocating judicial review powers to a specialized court, either within or outside the Superior Court ; and (5) the desirability and form of a procedure allowing for political intervention in the decision-making process of independent agencies. In the light of these issues, the paper describes the allocation of review functions between administrative and judicial bodies in Swiss federal law. The structure and activity of the Swiss Federal Court (Tribunal fédéral), and especially of the division of the Court that deals with most administrative law cases, are outlined in some more detail. A short historical sketch leads to a discussion of the corresponding features of the law in some of the cantons, and to consideration of the special position given to social security matters in the general scheme of administrative law. The paper then focusses on administrative action itself, commenting on the most significant provisions in the Federal Administrative Procedure Act (Loi fédérale sur la procédure administrative) of 1968. Special attention is paid to the process of review within the administration, up to the level of the federal cabinet (Conseil fédéral). Corresponding provisions in the law of some of the cantons are also briefly discussed. The description of the federal review process is then completed by an outline of the procedure for judicial review of administrative action by the Federal Court (Recours de droit administrative). Finally, notice is again taken of the special position of social security as regards administrative procedure. The paper draws attention, in its concluding part, to the most interesting insights provided by Swiss law into the current problems of Canadian and Quebec administrative law. The growth of administrative tribunals has been brought under control by structural arrangements, especially in the field of social security. The introduction of general standards of procedure has brought greater uniformity and clarity, has emphasized the unity of administrative process including the review phase before administrative or judicial authorities, and has strenghtened the rule of law over government action. The existence of a single procedure to invoke judicial review eases access to the court. While in many cases review by the court is excluded, these exclusions have to be specific, and leave full opportunity for review within the administration, with adequate safeguards provided by the Administrative Procedure Act. Specialization occurs within the Federal Court, and does not involve a rigid separation between judges applying administrative law and judges applying other branches of the law, as in France or Germany. Finally, ultimate political control over certain types of decisions is admitted as a part of life in Swiss federal law, but is at the same time subjected to a quasi-judicial procedure which makes it an acknowledged source of administrative justice.

The article considers foreign experience in organizing the activities of law enforcement agencies. It is determined that the field of law enforcement is constantly in a state of dynamic transformation and improvement, which to some extent reflects the direction of national legislation and policies. It is also noted that according to modern requirements, maintaining the rule of law is one of the most important tasks of the state, so in organizing the work of law enforcement agencies, the implementation of international experience is one of the most important tasks of the rule of law. One of the current trends in the development of the legal system is its openness, which determines the possibility of using advanced foreign concepts to implement universally recognized international principles, norms and standards of human and civil rights and freedoms.It is emphasized that the following facts should be taken into account: historical traditions of legislation and law enforcement, features of socio-economic and cultural development of countries, general cultural and legal consciousness of the population, degree of interaction with government and civil society, features of national police, logistics. providing police and other important factors. International law enforcement standards have an important role to play in policing.It was found that abroad, as in Ukraine, law enforcement reform is part of administrative reform, and the direction of its implementation often depends on the overall objectives of public administration reform. The purpose of most reforms in foreign countries is to: increase the efficiency of national systems; transforming the country into a responsible employer capable of attracting a sufficient number of workers with the necessary qualifications, controlling the cost of their maintenance; increasing the confidence of the private sector and citizens in public institutions.Three models of internal security in European countries are considered: centralized or continental model (Norway, Denmark, Finland, Ireland, Sweden, Spain, Portugal, Italy, France, Belgium, Holland, Luxembourg), decentralized model (Czech Republic, Bulgaria, Romania, Combino) (integrated) model (UK, Germany, Netherlands).

INTRODUCTION:One of the barriers of integrating ethics in Health Technology Assessment (HTA) relates to the social role of HTA (1). The aim of this study is to provide a better understanding of the way by which law circumscribes the social role of HTA. Our hypothesis: HTA's social role is embedded within a mixed governance based on hard law and soft law.METHODS:Three HTA agencies were conveniently selected for our study: Haute Autorité de santé (HAS) (France), National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) (United Kingdom) and Institut national d'excellence en santé et en services sociaux (INESSS) (Québec, Canada). Our analysis of the legal, administrative and procedural documents relating to the existence and assessment processes of these three agencies is guided by the following criteria: 1.The normative strength of the documents (categories of hard law or soft law) (2)2.The definition of the agencies’ social role (1)3.The integration of ethics in the agencies’ mandate.RESULTS:Hard law contributes to establish a general mandate and some legal legitimacy for these agencies. Soft law, grounded in the HTA producers' practices, plays a major role in the legal governance of HTA. Our results demonstrate that these agencies existing practices seem to circumscribe their social role further than their constitutive laws. In this context, social actors become responsible to define, structure and operationalize the implementation of HTA.In addition, the legal framework (hard law) through which HTA unfolds does not clearly support its structural and social role. Despite existing legal frameworks, the normative legitimacy of HTA is not entirely established, as it depends on soft law. Taken altogether, this maintains a persisting conceptual vagueness in HTA governance.CONCLUSIONS:The social role of HTA should be defined either through modifying existing legislations (hard law) or through harmonization of the agencies internal policies and regulations (soft law). Such legal initiatives would help clarify the aims of HTA evaluations: assessments (scientific) or appraisal (value-laden), and therefore give a clearer indication on how best to integrate ethics in HTA.

This article examines the assumption that recent reforms in social and public services can be understood as a transition from New Public Management to post-New Public Management. English and French social housing delivery are selected as two cases in which to test out this assumption, for ostensibly these delivery structures share significant cross-national, post-NPM similarities – a movement towards a more ‘enabling’ or steering role for central government, the creation of coordinating agencies, ‘decentralization’ initiatives, the extensive use of public–private arrangements to finance social housing and the involvement of a wide range of extra- and semi-governmental organizations. However, further investigation reveals that these reforms of delivery structures have not been predominantly driven by an unfolding post-NPM managerial or governance logic as the thesis assumes. Rather the reforms have been driven by the partisan electoral and ideological goals of central government policymakers within the context of institutional legacies and entrenched social values. Points for practitioners New Public Management and post-New Public Management have become the conventional wisdom on administrative reforms particularly in a comparative context. This article argues that these ideas reflect an impoverished understanding of public administration given that they assume that change occurs predominantly through the unfolding of managerial and/or governance logics. These logics exclude the critical role of the political parties and other socio-political factors, such as urban unrest, in driving change. This Anglo-French analysis of social housing delivery demonstrates the significance of these political factors in how policymakers define social problems, re-design and implement social housing service delivery systems.

Purpose Since 2008-2009, the governments in France and Great Britain have encouraged more rigorous penalization of tax evaders. This paper aims to investigate the implementation of these policies on the basis of an important and original empirical material. Design/methodology/approach The study done in France relies on interviews conducted with representatives of law enforcement agencies on public statistics and on an innovative database compiled from nearly 600 cases submitted to the judiciary. The comparison with Great Britain is developed through interviews conducted with different participants in the fight against tax fraud and statistical information. Findings This paper describes the recent evolution of the machinery for screening tax-related wrongdoings in France and in the UK. It demonstrates that whilst publicly calling for harsh punishment against tax dodgers, in practice, both governments tend to seek a balance between the growing demand for tax equality and the belief that the State should not intervene in the economic realm. This strategy leads to the over-representation of certain categories of taxpayers. Despite the commonalities resulting from the numerous filters before prosecution, the penal strategy takes on two different shapes on either side of the Channel: whereas the British institutions support an “exemplary punitive” system, French regulatory system favours a “quasi-administrative” treatment. The French tax authority continues to use the criminal procedures mainly as a financial instrument for the improved restitution of stolen taxes. The policy of Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs, supported by the “Sentencing Guidelines”, aims much more at obtaining exemplary convictions. Originality/value Based on a large empirical material, this paper highlights the different outcomes of the criminal trials against tax evaders in the two countries.

In the scientific article, the authors conducted a study of foreign experience in prosecuting for illegal crossing of the state border under the laws of neighboring countries and the European Union. Based on the study, the authors concluded that according to foreign legislation on liability for illegal crossing of the state border, such acts are mostly criminal liability (especially post-Soviet states, except Ukraine, Belarus, Estonia and Moldova; the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland; Poland; France; Germany). However, the legislation of many European Union countries, including the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Estonia, provides for criminal liability only if there are aggravating circumstances when crossing the state border, providing for administrative liability for crossing the state border in other cases. Such circumstances are: use of force or threat of imminent use of force when crossing the state border, violation of the air border, ignoring the stop signal or order issued by a border guard official, crossing the border by a group of persons or a vehicle in a place not intended to cross the border, repeated offense while crossing the border, causing serious damage to health or life of a border guard official. Similarly, the legal regulation of legal liability for illegal crossing of the state border in Ukraine is an administrative offense, but in the presence of qualifying circumstances (illegal crossing of the state border to harm the interests of the state, as well as illegal crossing of the state border by a person prohibited entry into the territory of Ukraine, or representatives of units of the armed forces or other law enforcement agencies of the aggressor state) – a crime. Belarusian law provides for administrative liability for illegal crossing of the state border for the first time, and criminal liability for repeated offenses. States such as the Republic of Slovenia and the Republic of Moldova, whose legislation does not provide for criminal liability for illegal entry and illegal stay in the country, consider illegal crossing of the state border exclusively as an administrative offense.

This research aims to determine the use of authority by government agencies is legality. Specifically, to find out more about the prohibition of Ultra Vires (Exces De Pouvoir) in Government Actions (Comparative Study of Concepts between the Anglo Saxon Law System and the Continental Legal System). The results of the study indicate that First, the form of government agency action prohibition in the form of excès de pouvoir (ultra vires), both in the Anglo Saxon legal system (Britain, USA, Australia, etc.) and Continental especially France includes also the prohibition of abuse of authority (abuse of power, detournement de pouvoir). Second, the Prohibition of abuse of authority (detournement de pouvoir) in France has been developed into 3 (three) variants, namely the Administrative Agency has the purpose / aims to achieve goals that are entirely other than the public interest, and as a personal goal. Keywords: Prohibition of Ultra Vires, Government Actions, Legal System. Abstrak Penelitian inimbertujuan untuk mengetahui Larangan Ultra Vires (Exces De Pouvoir) dalam Tindakan Pemerintahan (Studi Komparasi Konsep Antara Sistem Hukum Anglo Saxon Dan Sistem Hukum Kontinental). Hasil penelitian menjukan bahwa Pertama, Bentuk larangan tindakan badan pemerintah yang berupa excès de pouvoir (ultra vires), baik dalam sistem hukum Anglo Saxon (Inggris, USA, Australia, dll) maupun Kontinental khususnya Prancis meliputi juga larangan penyalahgunaan wewenang (abuse of power, detournement de pouvoir). Kedua, Larangan penyalahgunaan wewenang (detournement de pouvoir) di Prancis telah dikembangkan ke dalam 3 (tiga) varian, yaitu Badan Administrasi memiliki tujuan/bertujuan untuk mencapai tujuan yang sepenuhnya selain bagi kepentingan umum, dan sebagai tujuan pribadi. Kata Kunci: Larangan Ultra Vires, Tindakan Pemerintahan, Sistem Hukum.

The resurgence of New Right politics in the late 1970s and 1980s (e.g. ‘Reaganomics’ and ‘Thatcherism’), which were pro-market and pro-private sector ( Lorenz, 2012 ), has increased the reliance on the private sector for the provision of public services. In France, the support for the private sector is no longer a partisan or ideological issue, but rather a pragmatic and increasingly routine approach to the delivery of public services. Whether this will improve the efficiency of the health-care system is still open to question. The article: investigates the use of the New Public Management toolbox ( Goldfinch and Wallis, 2009 : 151) in the French health-care system; examines its selective adoption; and assesses its impact on the accountability and transparency of the medical profession. The French government eventually opted for a re-centralization of the health-care system for monitoring purposes. The reforms antagonized the medical profession and strengthened private care providers. Point for practitioners Despite reiterated calls for devolution, the implementation of New Public Management in the French health-care system led to a greater re-centralization and rising regulations for efficiency purposes. It also allowed the French administrative elite to regain its prerogatives and regional health agencies to reform more rapidly than a multitude of local public organizations. The quest for greater accountability remains an ongoing process.

ObjectiveUnlike several other national health agencies, French health authorities recommended that the newer direct oral anticoagulant (DOAC) agents only be prescribed as second choice for the treatment of newly diagnosed non-valvular atrial fibrillation (NVAF), with vitamin K antagonists (VKA) remaining the first choice. We investigated the patterns of use of DOACs versus VKA in the treatment of NVAF in France over the first 5 years of DOAC availability. We also identified the changes in patient characteristics of those who initiated DOAC treatment over this time period.MethodsBased on the French National Health Administrative Database, we constituted a population-based cohort of all patients who were newly treated for NVAF between January 2011 and December 2015. Trends in drug use were described as the percentage of patients initiating each drug at the time of treatment initiation. A multivariate analysis using logistic regression model was performed to identify independent sociodemographic and clinical predictors of initial anticoagulant choice.ResultsThe cohort comprised 814 446 patients who had received a new anticoagulant treatment for NVAF. The proportion of patients using DOACs as initial anticoagulant therapy reached 54% 3 months after the Health Ministry approved the reimbursement of dabigatran for NVAF, and 61% by the end of 2015, versus VKA use. In the multivariate analysis, we found that DOAC initiators were younger and healthier overall than VKA initiators, and this tendency was reinforced over the 2011–2014 period. DOACs were more frequently prescribed by cardiologists in 2012 and after (adjusted OR in 2012: 2.47; 95% CI 2.40 to 2.54).ConclusionDespite recommendations from health authorities, DOACs have been rapidly and massively adopted as initial therapy for NVAF in France. Observational studies should account for the fact that patients selected to initiate DOAC treatment are healthier overall, as failure to do so may bias the risk–benefit assessment of DOACs.

The article focuses on counteraction to corruption offences in Ukraine and the EU. To this end, the authors conducted a consistent analysis of international legal acts in the field of combating corruption, in particular the United Nations Convention against Corruption of 10/31/2003; Council of Europe Criminal Convention for the Suppression of Corruption (ETS 173) No. ETS173 of 01/27/1999; Resolutions (97)24 of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe on the Twenty Guiding Principles for the Fight against Corruption, etc. The study provides a systemic analysis of individual cases of experience in counteraction to corruption offences in EU countries. Experience of Great Britain, France, Germany, Belgium, Sweden, etc. is explored. The authors proved that all EU countries provide criminal liability for committing corruption offences. In different countries, criminal laws differ in the different levels of detailing of crime, as well as in the different content of the concept of corruption offence. It is proven that corruption must always be considered as criminal offence only. Today, such unambiguity is advisable in the fight against corruption in Ukraine, where the criminalization of a number of blatantly corrupt practices, such as unjust enrichment, lasts for a long period and is ambiguously effective. The article also concludes that the most effective approach of legal support for combating corruption is one that covers criminal prosecution, disclosure of information about public authorities and private entities, their income levels, their wealth, etc., as well as the interaction of law enforcement agencies with the fiscal authorities. On the example of EU countries, we showed that monitoring of financial information of public officials under the private and public laws with the proper level of analytical support for its processing provides the necessary basis for law enforcement agencies to initiate criminal proceedings for such crimes. Special attention is also paid to expanding the scope of administrative services provided by public officials as being covered by the attributes of corruption and lacking legislative support. This will significantly increase the level of transparency of the activity of public authorities, while reducing the level of corruption manifestations. An important conclusion of the article is that the effectiveness of criminal prosecution for committing corruption offences depends on the level of legal culture and the level of legal awareness of both the public and public servants.

The article reveals the problem of Ukrainian and foreign state symbols criminal law protection considering domestic and world practice. The relevant norms of criminal laws of the Russian Empire, USSR and Poland, which were in force in the Ukrainian lands in the XIX-XX centuries, have been examined. An analysis of domestic judicial practice in criminal cases related to the abuse of state symbols has been done. It has been illustrated that Ukrainian law enforcement agencies do not always correctly determine the nature of this crime. That is due to the lack of constitutional laws enshrining the system of state symbols of Ukraine, as well as gaps in legal regulation, in particular in the aspect of criminal protection of the European Union flag as membership in this organization is a strategic foreign policy priority of Ukraine. Inter alia, the erroneous legal treatment of individuals’ actions during the protest which took place near the President’s Office on March 20, 2021 as an insult to the State Emblem has been emphasized. The authors also considered solutions of the problem within the framework of a particular legal system – in criminal law of the United States, Germany, France, Spain, Iceland, the United Arab Emirates, Uzbekistan, Japan and other countries. The scientific novelty of this investigation, among other things, is in the examination of both retrospective and prospects of legal responsibility for disrespect of the State language, which is necessary to establish according to the Constitutional Court’s decision on the validity of the Law of Ukraine “On ensuring the functioning of the Ukrainian language as the state language”. However, the authors are inclined to think that this issue should be regulated by administrative law, given the experience of some post-Soviet states. Proposals for amendments to the Criminal Code of Ukraine have been made.

In order for the victim to fully recover the damage caused by the crime in the criminal procedure, he/she must be able to participate with the legal status of the litigant. However, there are many limitations in participating in criminal proceedings because the victim is still in the position of a witness within our criminal justice system. The victim's right to read and copy investigative documents, one of the means of participating in criminal proceedings, is a type of right to collect information based on the constitutional right to know, and is the right to read or receive copies of information held and managed by criminal justice agencies. The Korean Criminal Procedure Act has no basis of applying for and providing information on investigative documents before filing a prosecution, but it is possible to view and copy them on specific cases under investigation through the special law such as ‘Information Disclosure Act’ and ‘Sexual Violence Act’ in Korea. In practice, the criteria for permission and restriction of reading and copying investigative documents are prepared as a form of legal orders and administrative rules, allowing victims to read and copy the documents. However, since there is a ruling that it is unconstitutional and illegal to restrict the victim's right to information in sub-laws without a basis for delegation under the higher law, it is necessary to prepare permission requirements and grounds through its delegation for reading and copying investigative documents. In addition, it will be difficult to upgrade the status of victims to the same level of litigation as Germany and France, but it is necessary to allow them to participate in the lawsuit, guaranteeing the right to appoint lawyers, and providing appropriate remedies, while imposing legal responsibility on the victims who use them for other purpose.

RESUMEN Tras la derrota republicana en la Guerra Civil fueron muchos los españoles que tuvieron que huir y comenzar una nueva vida. La gran mayoría se asentó en Francia aunque muchos otros optaron por pedir asilo en el continente americano, especialmente en México. Su presidente, Lázaro Cárdenas, puso como condición principal para esta acogida que las instituciones de ayuda a los refugiados, creadas con los fondos de la República española, financiaran los viajes de estos hacia el país azteca, así como su manutención y alojamiento durante los primeros meses de su estancia en dicho lugar. Para llevar a cabo esta tarea se creó el Comité Técnico de Ayuda a los Republicanos Españoles (CTARE) capitaneado por José Puche, delegación del Servicio de Evacuación de los Republicanos Españoles (SERE) en México. A este Comité llegaron miles de peticiones de ayuda en las que los refugiados mostraban cuáles eran sus necesidades y preocupaciones más urgentes. El análisis de una parte de estas súplicas es el eje central de este trabajo, que pretende demostrar cuál fue el camino que siguieron estas cartas desde su escritura hasta su concesión o negación y qué huellas administrativas pueden encontrarse en las mismas, así como señalar cuáles son sus características esenciales. Gracias al análisis de estas peticiones podremos conocer el funcionamiento interno del Comité y recuperar la historia de los exiliados anónimos, generalmente marginados en buena parte de las obras escritas sobre esta temática. PALABRAS CLAVE: cartas de súplica, exilio republicano español, México, siglo XX, Comité Técnico de Ayuda a los Republicanos Españoles (CTARE) ABSTRACT After the defeat of the Republic in the Spanish Civil War many were forced to flee and begin a new life. Although the bulk of refugees fled to France, many others sought asylum in America, primarily in Mexico. As the main condition for receiving them the President of Mexico at that time, Lázaro Cárdenas, required the aid institutions, created with funds from the Spanish Republic, to pay for the travel, maintenance and accommodation of the refugees during their first months in Mexico. For that reason, the Servicio de Evacuación de los Republicanos Españoles (SERE) decided to create a delegation in Mexico, the Comité Técnico de Ayuda a los Republicanos Españoles (CTARE), led by José Puche. This Committee received thousands of requests for assistance with what the refugees considered their most urgent necessities. This paper seeks to analyze part of these requests. First, we show the administrative route of the request, leading either to its acceptance or rejection, as well as the administrative traces left by this process on the letters. Second, we analyze the main characteristics of the request. Thanks to the analysis of these requests we gain knowledge of the internal functioning of the Committee and recover the history of the anonymous exiles, generally excluded in a large percentage of the work written on this subject. KEY WORDS: writing culture, letters of pleading, Spanish Republican exile, Mexico, aid agencies, Comité Técnico de Ayuda a los Republicanos Españoles (CTARE)

The bases of the legal status of the Accounting Chamber have been studied: rights, duties, responsibilities, principles, purpose, functions, place of the Accounting Chamber among other state agencies and their interaction. It has been emphasized that the Accounting Chamber should be assigned the status of the Supreme Audit Institution in order to harmonize the legal definition of the legal status of the Accounting Chamber with international standards, namely the Lima Declaration of Control Guidelines, which should assist in expanding the powers of the state agency and should facilitate the effective realization of control functions. The authors have studied the problem of compliance of the Accounting Chamber with the principle of independence contained in the Constitution of Ukraine and in the Law of Ukraine “On the Accounting Chamber”. The emphasis has been placed on the fact that the legislator identifies the legal categories of “state financial audit” and “state external financial control (audit)” in the Law of Ukraine “On the Accounting Chamber”, by using the phrase “state external financial control (audit)”. It is the basis for authors to emphasize the importance of adopting a regulatory act, which will be designed to distinguish between basic categories (concepts) in the field of public financial control (audit). The need to consolidate the functions of the Accounting Chamber at the legislative level and their delimitation with the powers of a state agency has been substantiated. The need to supplement the title of the Law of Ukraine “On the Accounting Chamber” with the word Ukraine has been emphasized. The shortcomings of the legal regulation of the institution of responsibility of officials of the Accounting Chamber have been highlighted. The emphasis has been placed on the fact that the mechanism for bringing officials of the Accounting Chamber to disciplinary responsibility is not regulated at a high level. The authors have emphasized on the improvement of normative and legal regulation of the special procedure for bringing guilty persons to administrative liability by authorized persons of the Accounting Chamber for violation of the law. Based on the analyzed experience of the Accounting Chamber of France, the authors have suggested the ways to improve the legal status of the Accounting Chamber of Ukraine.

The article presents the quality assurance of higher education in France and reveals the system structure peculiar features. The authors characterize the activity of national agencies for external and internal quality assessment. We show that the formation of French quality assurance in higher education has lasted for three decades. The periodization of the quality assurance shaping in higher education is determined based on reforming the principal national agency for quality. The article illustrates the national legislative documents that regulate external and internal French quality assurance. We believe that a specific feature of the French system of quality assurance in higher education is its subordination to agencies (ENQA and EQAR) at the EU level. The article reveals that the French system of quality assurance in higher education is regulated by legal documents («Standards and recommendations for quality assurance in the EHEA»(ESG)) at the European level; a number of national laws, including the Law on Finance (2001), the Law on Freedom and Responsibility of Universities (2007), the Law on Higher Education and Research (2013); national recommendations and handbooks that form the norms and procedures for assessing the quality of universities. Higher education quality assurance is provided through external assessment and internal self-assessment by universities at the national level. The specificity of the French external quality assessment system’s structure lies in the variety of external agencies and their powers. The High Council for Evaluation in Research and Higher Education (Hcéres) is an independent body. The others external agencies are the Inspectorate General for Public Administration of Education and Training (IGAENR), the Commission of Chartered Engineers (CTI), the Commission for the Evaluation of Management Training and Diplomas (CEFDG) and the Advisory National Commission of University Institutes of Technology (CCN-IUT). National external assessment agencies have a sectoral focus and work in a specific segment, relying on internal quality control procedures. Internal self-assessment is mandatory for all French universities that issue state-recognized diplomas.

Local economic development policy networks in four cities in Britain and France (Leeds, Southampton, Lille, and Rennes) are compared by means of the technique of sociometric network analysis. The author's objective was to find out if, in an age of internationalisation and urban competition, networks still conform to the structure suggested by the classic Franco-British comparative studies, or whether they resemble the more open and interorganisational pattern characteristic of the new urban governance. After setting out the methods and the sociometric approach, the author identifies actors who have the ten highest centrality scores in the four cities, The author concludes that, in spite of continuing contrasts in the national institutional structures and differences in the politics and cultures of the four cities, there is a surprising similarity in the key actors involved in urban economic development; these actors include individuals from the locally elected authorities, central government bodies, and businesses. The new urban governance is based on the range of agencies responsible for economic development and upon the growing importance of business in policy formulation and implementation.

The legal bases of strategic planning in the United States, Canada, France, the Republic of Poland and Japan are analyzed. It is established that within the national legal systems of the studied countries there is no single unified approach to the organization of the strategic planning process. The peculiarities of strategic planning are studied and its main tasks in foreign countries are singled out. It was found that in most foreign countries there is a three-tier system of territorial socio-economic development. The importance of strategic planning in the United States of America lies in outlining the main priorities for economic development at the federal level and to organize on this basis partnerships with state authorities, businesses and directly citizens. In Canada, the strategic planning system includes an interconnected system of documents that reflect different levels of public administration: a federal strategy for sustainable development, which outlines the prospects and priorities for state development; sustainable development strategies of regions (states), developed on the basis of national strategy and national development programs; strategies for sustainable development of cities that best express the interests of the population; development strategies of certain sectors of the economy and line ministries, government agencies, agencies. It is established that the regional component in the formation and implementation of economic development strategy is considered in France, as in most European countries, as a constant phenomenon with an emphasis on restructuring regions, maximizing their domestic development potential, supporting small and medium businesses. The state policy of the Republic of Poland is carried out on the basis of normatively established development strategies: long-term, medium-term development strategies of the country and other development strategies of regions, territories, sectors or industries, which are implemented through programs. The main purpose of strategies in Japan is to establish government policy goals, guide agencies and non-governmental actors to set targets for the processes and trends being monitored, and engage in dialogue with society to adjust government assessments and goals. Attention is drawn to the need to implement positive international practice in order to ensure the quality of the strategic planning process in Ukraine.

IntroductionA recent proliferation of value frameworks, as well as the emergence of innovative approaches to treating disease (e.g., cell/gene therapies) have been accompanied by an increased focus on nontraditional elements of value. We sought to understand whether and how health technology assessment (HTA) agencies consider novel aspects of treatment in value assessments.MethodsWe defined treatment novelty as follows: (i) a new mechanism of action or administration; (ii) addresses an unmet need; or (iii) confers a distinct benefit that transforms clinical practice or that is difficult to quantify. We reviewed technical guidance and peer-reviewed literature to investigate how organizations in eight countries (Australia, Canada, England, France, Norway, the Netherlands, Sweden, and the United States) consider aspects of this definition.ResultsAll (n = 8) organizations give special consideration to interventions that address an unmet need, particularly in cancer, rare diseases, and other severe conditions. Nearly all (n = 5) organizations consider whether an intervention produces benefits that may not be adequately quantified. Organizations in England, Norway, and France sometimes recommend drugs with less favorable cost-effectiveness estimates than traditionally considered if the drug addresses rare or severe conditions, or if its quality-of-life benefit is thought to be inadequately quantified. The Institute for Clinical and Economic Review in the United States models cost-effectiveness in rare diseases using both a modified societal and health care system perspective. Importantly, the benefits of novel treatments are frequently considered uncertain, particularly treatments with a new mechanism of action. When uncertainty is high, organizations in Canada, England, France, the Netherlands, and Sweden sometimes issue conditional recommendations until additional evidence is submitted. England and Australia have used risk sharing agreements for drugs determined to be novel but uncertain.ConclusionsThe most widely considered aspects of treatment novelty in HTA are unmet needs and potential benefits that are not easily measured. The willingness to pay for novel treatments is often greater, despite inherent uncertainties about benefit and cost-effectiveness.

INTRODUCTION:Minimizing the delay between regulatory approval and Health Technology Assessment (HTA) recommendation is critical to ensure patients access to medicines of therapeutic value. The aim of this study was to evaluate the level of synchronization between the regulatory decision and HTA recommendation.METHODS:Data were collected from the public domain for new active substances that were first appraised by the HTA agency in Scotland (SMC - Scottish Medicines Consortium), France (HAS - Haute Autorité de Santé), Germany (IQWIG - Institut für Qualität und Wirtschaftlichkeit im Gesundheitswesen), Australia (PBAC - Pharmaceutical Benefits Advisory Committee) and Canada (CADTH - Canadian Agency for Drugs and Technologies), and that reached an outcome in 2014 and 2015. The year the product was approved by the European Medicines Agency (EMA), Australian Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) and Health Canada were also assessed.RESULTS:In 2014 and 2015, fifty-one products with HTA recommendations were identified for SMC and IQWIG, forty-two for HAS, forty for PBAC and thirty-eight for CADTH.Of the HTA agencies studied, CADTH had the lowest percentage of HTA recommendations occurring the same year as jurisdictional regulatory approval. Of the products with CADTH recommendations in 2014, only 7 percent were approved by Health Canada in the same year. By comparison, all of the products with PBAC recommendations in 2015 were approved by TGA in the same year.For 2014 and 2015, comparing the percentage of HTA recommendations with the jurisdictional regulatory agency approval the same year showed 7 percent (2014) versus 29 percent (2015) for CADTH: 35 percent versus 37 percent for SMC: 35 percent versus 44 percent for HAS; 56 percent versus 57 percent for IQWIG; and 91 percent versus 100 percent for PBAC.CONCLUSIONS:This study shows that the parallel submission mechanism to enable synchronizing HTA and regulatory decision making is effective in Australia, whilst there remains a synchronization disconnect in other countries; although this may be improving. The extent of decision timing disconnect, influence of company strategy and type of HTA outcome were also studied. This initial analysis suggests gaps between the timing of regulatory approval and HTA recommendation for HTA agencies outside of Australia.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore how comprehensive the management of common repairs in the nineteenth-century urban housing in Edinburgh is in the European context. The city experienced a variety of approaches since the 1970s to repairs of exposed decorative elements and the envelope, whose condition is exacerbated by inappropriate interventions and climate change. Design/methodology/approach The debate is framed in practice in Western Europe where economy, administration and conservation cultures have been similar since the 1970s: property manager (Glasgow), role of housing agency (Venice), Monumentenwacht’s periodical inspections for subscribers (Flanders), tax incentives (France, Italy, Spain), linking management and procurement (Libretto Casa, Rome) and the emerging concept of preventive conservation. Findings Edinburgh has a holistic and technically rich management experience, with a strong educational focus, which shows the immense volume of work required, hampered by the fragmentation of ownership and the small size of the repair industry. Practice can improve in Edinburgh and Europe through increased awareness, tax incentives, regular inspections, legal recognition of the need for maintenance and stepping-up the debate at national, European and political level, towards preventive conservation approaches. Research limitations/implications The study profited from direct knowledge of the approach in Edinburgh and other areas, but little has been published on each area outside the local level, so appraisal depended on language knowledge. Originality/value This first reading of practice at the European level may be of value to the national agencies referred to, for policy development or European initiatives.

The author of the article has outlined the problem of finding the most optimal model of the state for of government, because the necessary condition for stable development of society and effective functioning of the state is to ensure the balance between national interests and the interests of the population of regions and territorial communities. The preconditions, political history and periods of the formation of decentralized power in most European medieval states, scientific positions of national and foreign legal scholars on the expediency of implementing decentralization have been analyzed. It has been found out that the vast majority of Western European countries abdicate the unitary state model by introducing decentralization. The leading idea of reforming is to move the center of solving local issues to the local and, in particular regional level that is achieved by optimizing relations between different levels of territorial organization of power. National traditions, formation and functioning of public agencie in the past, specific features of administrative and territorial structure of the state, existence of autonomous territories, multiethnic population have a significant influence on the formation of the constitutional system on the basis of decentralization in the EU countries. The positive experience Poland, France, Italy, Latvia, Germany and Denmark has been studied. The author has theoretically substantiated that the principle of decentralization has been successfully implemented in the practice of the European Union countries. It has been indicated that the prerequisite for the successful implementation of decentralization processes to create an effective model of governance within the system of decentralized government of Ukraine is: the establishment of the rule of law principle; recognition and guarantees of local self-government; equal legal protection of all forms of ownership; democratic and effective electoral legislation; independence, efficiency, accessibility and transparency of the judicial system, functioning of administrative justice institutions; perfect budget process and high financial discipline; availability of adequate social standards; developed public sector and stable tendency towards its development.

1503 Background: The US Food and Drug Administration and other regulatory agencies recently warned prescribers that use of pioglitazone, a thiazolidinedione (TZD), may increase the risk of bladder cancer. France and Germany removed the drug from their markets, although the rest of Europe did not. However, no information was available about the risk from alternative TZDs. We aimed to compare bladder cancer risk over time with use of TZDs relative to sulfonylureas (SUs), and between pioglitazone and rosiglitazone. Methods: We conducted a cohort study of patients with type 2 diabetes who initiated treatment with a TZD or SU using The Health Improvement Network (2000-2010), a UK general practitioner medical record database. Incident cancers within the database were identified. We computed hazard ratios (HRs) of bladder cancer for TZDs in comparison to the reference group of SU users. Results: There were 60 incident diagnoses of bladder cancer in the TZD cohort (n=18,459) and 137 in the SU cohort (n=41,396). There was no significant difference in bladder cancer risk between the cohorts (HR 0·93, [95% CI 0·68-1·29]), but most use was short-term use. In contrast, the risk of bladder cancer increased with increasing time since initiation of TZD versus SU therapy (HRs 1·15, 1·40, and 1·72 for 3-4, 4-5, and ≥ 5 years, respectively; P-trend=0·033). Bladder cancer risk also increased with increasing time since initiation of pioglitazone (P-trend<0·001) and rosiglitazone (P-trend=0·006). Direct comparison of pioglitazone to rosiglitazone did not demonstrate significant differences in cancer risk with increasing time since initiation (P-trend=0·12) or duration of therapy (P-trend=0·75). Conclusions: Long-term TZD therapy is associated with an increased risk of bladder cancer, which appears to be a class effect.

1. Introduction This Special Issue (Part 2) expands upon the theme “Building Local Capacity for Long-term Disaster Resilience” presented in Special Issue Part 1 (JDR Volume 5, Number 2, April 2010) by examining the evolving concept of disaster resilience and providing additional reflections upon various aspects of its meaning. Part 1 provided a mixed set of examples of resiliency efforts, ranging from administrative challenges of integrating resilience into recovery to the analysis of hazard mitigation plans directed toward guiding local capability for developing resiliency. Resilience was broadly defined in the opening editorial of Special Issue Part 1 as “the capacity of a community to: 1) survive a major disaster, 2) retain essential structure and functions, and 3) adapt to post-disaster opportunities for transforming community structure and functions to meet new challenges.” In this editorial essay we first explore in Section 2 the history of resilience and then locate it within current academic and policy debates. Section 3 presents summaries of the papers in this issue. 2. Why is Resilience a Contemporary Theme? There is growing scholarly and policy interest in disaster resilience. In recent years, engineers [1], sociologists [2], geographers [3], economists [4], public policy analysts [5, 6], urban planners [7], hazards researchers [8], governments [9], and international organizations [10] have all contributed to the literature about this concept. Some authors view resilience as a mechanism for mitigating disaster impacts, with framework objectives such as resistance, absorption, and restoration [5]. Others, who focus on resiliency indicators, see it as an early warning system to assess community resiliency status [3, 8]. Recently, it has emerged as a component of social risk management that seeks to minimize social welfare loss from catastrophic disasters [6]. Manyena [11] traces scholarly exploration of resilience as an operational concept back at least five decades. Interest in resilience began in the 1940s with studies of children and trauma in the family and in the 1970s in the ecology literature as a useful framework to examine and measure the impact of assault or trauma on a defined eco-system component [12]. This led to modeling resilience measures for a variety of components within a defined ecosystem, leading to the realization that the systems approach to resiliency is attractive as a cross-disciplinary construct. The ecosystem analogy however, has limits when applied to disaster studies in that, historically, all catastrophic events have changed the place in which they occurred and a “return to normalcy” does not occur. This is true for modern urban societies as well as traditional agrarian societies. The adoption of “The Hyogo Framework for Action 2005-2015” (also known as The Hyogo Declaration) provides a global linkage and follows the United Nations 1990s International Decade for Natural Disaster Reduction effort. The 2005 Hyogo Declaration’s definition of resilience is: “The capacity of a system, community or society potentially exposed to hazards to adapt by resisting or changing in order to reach and maintain an acceptable level of functioning and structure.” The proposed measurement of resilience in the Hyogo Declaration is determined by “the degree to which the social system is capable of organizing itself to increase this capacity for learning from past disasters for better future protection and to improve risk reduction measures.” While very broad, this definition contains two key concepts: 1) adaptation, and 2) maintaining acceptable levels of functioning and structure. While adaptation requires certain capacities, maintaining acceptable levels of functioning and structure requires resources, forethought, and normative action. Some of these attributes are now reflected in the 2010 National Disaster Recovery Framework published by the U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) [13]. With the emergence of this new thinking on resilience related to disasters, it is now a good time to reflect on the concept and assess what has recently been said in the literature. Bruneau et al. [1] offer an engineering sciences definition for community seismic resilience: “The ability of social units (e.g., organizations, communities) to mitigate hazards, contain the effects of disasters when they occur, and carry out recovery activities in ways that minimize social disruption and mitigate the effects of future earthquakes.” Rose [4] writes that resiliency is the ability of a system to recover from a severe shock. He distinguishes two types of resilience: (1) inherent – ability under normal circumstances and (2) adaptive – ability in crisis situations due to ingenuity or extra effort. By opening up resilience to categorization he provides a pathway to establish multi-disciplinary approaches, something that is presently lacking in practice. Rose is most concerned with business disruption which can take extensive periods of time to correct. In order to make resource decisions that lower overall societal costs (economic, social, governmental and physical), Rose calls for the establishment of measurements that function as resource decision allocation guides. This has been done in part through risk transfer tools such as private insurance. However, it has not been well-adopted by governments in deciding how to allocate mitigation resources. We need to ask why the interest in resilience has grown? Manyena [11] argues that the concept of resilience has gained currency without obtaining clarity of understanding, definition, substance, philosophical dimensions, or applicability to disaster management and sustainable development theory and practice. It is evident that the “emergency management model” does not itself provide sufficient guidance for policymakers since it is too command-and-control-oriented and does not adequately address mitigation and recovery. Also, large disasters are increasingly viewed as major disruptions of the economic and social conditions of a country, state/province, or city. Lowering post-disaster costs (human life, property loss, economic advancement and government disruption) is being taken more seriously by government and civil society. The lessening of costs is not something the traditional “preparedness” stage of emergency management has concerned itself with; this is an existing void in meeting the expanding interests of government and civil society. The concept of resilience helps further clarify the relationship between risk and vulnerability. If risk is defined as “the probability of an event or condition occurring [14]#8221; then it can be reduced through physical, social, governmental, or economic means, thereby reducing the likelihood of damage and loss. Nothing can be done to stop an earthquake, volcanic eruption, cyclone, hurricane, or other natural event, but the probability of damage and loss from natural and technological hazards can be addressed through structural and non-structural strategies. Vulnerability is the absence of capacity to resist or absorb a disaster impact. Changes in vulnerability can then be achieved by changes in these capacities. In this regard, Franco and Siembieda describe in this issue how coastal cities in Chile had low resilience and high vulnerability to the tsunami generated by the February 2010 earthquake, whereas modern buildings had high resilience and, therefore, were much less vulnerable to the powerful earthquake. We also see how the framework for policy development can change through differing perspectives. Eisner discusses in this issue how local non-governmental social service agencies are building their resilience capabilities to serve target populations after a disaster occurs, becoming self-renewing social organizations and demonstrating what Leonard and Howett [6] term “social resilience.” All of the contributions to this issue illustrate the lowering of disaster impacts and strengthening of capacity (at the household, community or governmental level) for what Alesch [15] terms “post-event viability” – a term reflecting how well a person, business, community, or government functions after a disaster in addition to what they might do prior to a disaster to lessen its impact. Viability might become the definition of recovery if it can be measured or agreed upon. 3. Contents of This Issue The insights provided by the papers in this issue contribute greater clarity to an understanding of resilience, together with its applicability to disaster management. In these papers we find tools and methods, process strategies, and planning approaches. There are five papers focused on local experiences, three on state (prefecture) experiences, and two on national experiences. The papers in this issue reinforce the concept of resilience as a process, not a product, because it is the sum of many actions. The resiliency outcome is the result of multiple inputs from the level of the individual and, at times, continuing up to the national or international organizational level. Through this exploration we see that the “resiliency” concept accepts that people will come into conflict with natural or anthropogenic hazards. The policy question then becomes how to lower the impact(s) of the conflict through “hard or soft” measures (see the Special Issue Part 1 editorial for a discussion of “hard” vs. “soft” resilience). Local level Go Urakawa and Haruo Hayashi illustrate how post-disaster operations for public utilities can be problematic because many practitioners have no direct experience in such operations, noting that the formats and methods normally used in recovery depend on personal skills and effort. They describe how these problems are addressed by creating manuals on measures for effectively implementing post-disaster operations. They develop a method to extract priority operations using business impact analysis (BIA) and project management based business flow diagrams (BFD). Their article effectively illustrates the practical aspects of strengthening the resiliency of public organizations. Richard Eisner presents the framework used to initiate the development and implementation of a process to create disaster resilience in faith-based and community-based organizations that provide services to vulnerable populations in San Francisco, California. A major project outcome is the Disaster Resilience Standard for Community- and Faith-Based Service Providers. This “standard” has general applicability for use by social service agencies in the public and non-profit sectors. Alejandro Linayo addresses the growing issue of technological risk in cities. He argues for the need to understand an inherent conflict between how we occupy urban space and the technological risks created by hazardous chemicals, radiation, oil and gas, and other hazardous materials storage and movement. The paper points out that information and procedural gaps exist in terms of citizen knowledge (the right to know) and local administrative knowledge (missing expertise). Advances and experience accumulated by the Venezuela Disaster Risk Management Research Center in identifying and integrating technological risk treatment for the city of Merida, Venezuela, are highlighted as a way to move forward. L. Teresa Guevara-Perez presents the case that certain urban zoning requirements in contemporary cities encourage and, in some cases, enforce the use of building configurations that have been long recognized by earthquake engineering as seismically vulnerable. Using Western Europe and the Modernist architectural movement, she develops the historical case for understanding discrepancies between urban zoning regulations and seismic codes that have led to vulnerable modern building configurations, and traces the international dissemination of architectural and urban planning concepts that have generated vulnerability in contemporary cities around the world. Jung Eun Kang, Walter Gillis Peacock, and Rahmawati Husein discuss an assessment protocol for Hazard Mitigation Plans applied to 12 coastal hazard zone plans in the state of Texas in the U.S. The components of these plans are systematically examined in order to highlight their respective strengths and weaknesses. The authors describe an assessment tool, the plan quality score (PQS), composed of seven primary components (vision statement, planning process, fact basis, goals and objectives, inter-organizational coordination, policies & actions, and implementation), as well as a component quality score (CQS). State (Prefecture) level Charles Real presents the Natural Hazard Zonation Policies for Land Use Planning and Development in California in the U.S. California has established state-level policies that utilize knowledge of where natural hazards are more likely to occur to enhance the effectiveness of land use planning as a tool for risk mitigation. Experience in California demonstrates that a combination of education, outreach, and mutually supporting policies that are linked to state-designated natural hazard zones can form an effective framework for enhancing the role of land use planning in reducing future losses from natural disasters. Norio Maki, Keiko Tamura, and Haruo Hayashi present a method for local government stakeholders involved in pre-disaster plan making to describe performance measures through the formulation of desired outcomes. Through a case study approach, Nara and Kyoto Prefectures’ separate experiences demonstrate how to conduct Strategic Earthquake Disaster Reduction Plans and Action Plans that have deep stakeholder buy-in and outcome measurability. Nara’s plan was prepared from 2,015 stakeholder ideas and Kyoto’s plan was prepared from 1,613 stakeholder ideas. Having a quantitative target for individual objectives ensures the measurability of plan progress. Both jurisdictions have undertaken evaluations of plan outcomes. Sandy Meyer, Eugene Henry, Roy E. Wright and Cynthia A. Palmer present the State of Florida in the U.S. and its experience with pre-disaster planning for post-disaster redevelopment. Drawing upon the lessons learned from the impacts of the 2004 and 2005 hurricane seasons, local governments and state leaders in Florida sought to find a way to encourage behavior that would create greater community resiliency in 2006. The paper presents initial efforts to develop a post-disaster redevelopment plan (PDRP), including the experience of a pilot county. National level Bo-Yao Lee provides a national perspective: New Zealand’s approach to emergency management, where all hazard risks are addressed through devolved accountability. This contemporary approach advocates collaboration and coordination, aiming to address all hazard risks through the “4Rs” – reduction, readiness, response, and recovery. Lee presents the impact of the Resource Management Act (1991), the Civil Defence Emergency Management Act (2002), and the Building Act (2004) that comprise the key legislation influencing and promoting integrated management for environment and hazard risk management. Guillermo Franco and William Siembieda provide a field assessment of the February 27, 2010, M8.8 earthquake and tsunami event in Chile. The papers present an initial damage and life-loss review and assessment of seismic building resiliency and the country’s rapid updating of building codes that have undergone continuous improvement over the past 60 years. The country’s land use planning system and its emergency management system are also described. The role of insurance coverage reveals problems in seismic coverage for homeowners. The unique role of the Catholic Church in providing temporary shelter and the central government’s five-point housing recovery plan are presented. A weakness in the government’s emergency management system’s early tsunami response system is noted. Acknowledgements The Editorial Committee extends its sincere appreciation to both the contributors and the JDR staff for their patience and determination in making Part 2 of this special issue possible. Thanks also to the reviewers for their insightful analytic comments and suggestions. Finally, the Committee wishes to again thank Bayete Henderson for his keen and thorough editorial assistance and copy editing support.

Abstract Background In France, Health Regional Agencies (HRA) have to elaborate a Public Health Plan for the 5 coming years. For estimating future population health needs and associated costs to adapt the health services on the regional territory, the HRA in southeastern France requested a prospective analysis, based on demographic and epidemiologic scenarios about major chronic diseases, to evaluate future trends. Methods Six chronic diseases were selected: diabetes (1 or 2), cardiovascular diseases, respiratory diseases, cancers, neurological diseases and dementia. We used medico-administrative data from the National health insurance fund, and adapted algorithms to identify people with these diseases. We calculated prevalence rates according to gender and age and used two alternative scenarios (a constant one, and a trend-based one) to estimate the number of people with chronic diseases in 2023 and 2028, starting in 2016. We also estimated future healthcare costs according a constant and a trend-based scenario. Results The algorithms detect reasonable rates of disease compared to official rates available for 2016. Due to demographic (ageing) and/or epidemiologic trends, the number of people with chronic diseases will highly increase during the next ten years in the South of France region. For instance, between 2016 and 2028, there will be from 15% to 20% more people with diabetes. Associated costs will also be higher (+33% between 2016 and 2028), especially those granted to nursing care (+40%). Conclusions Burden of diseases and health expenditures are going to increase in the future. Projections are needed to help policymakers anticipating the required health services adaptation. Medico-administrative database are an invaluable source of data to do so. The next step of this project will consist in estimating those trends for smaller geographical areas. Key messages Data of the French Health Insurance fund can be used to predict future prevalence of chronic diseases and healthcare costs. South of France will face a main increase of people with chronic diseases.

The relevance of the research subject is conditioned upon the scientific originality and practical significance of using modern capabilities of unmanned aerial vehicles by police authorities and units. The relevance of the research issue is that the provisions of the current legislation defining the legal basis for using unmanned aerial vehicles by police authorities and units are mostly formally defined. Based on this, and considering that the law enforcement system has encountered new challenges which constantly require the introduction of the latest methods and means of countering crime, including using modern achievements of digital, technological, scientific and technical progress, the purpose of this research is to analyse the foreign experience of using unmanned aerial systems by law enforcement agencies, and based on this, to develop proposals for improving the current legislation in the part concerning using UAVs. The research methodology includes a combination of general scientific and special methods that allow for defining assumptions and drawing conclusions. The research examines the relevant issues of the day concerning using the technical capabilities of unmanned aerial systems in the course of performing the tasks assigned to police agencies and units. In particular, the author examines the international experience of some technologically advanced countries (the USA, Great Britain, Germany, France, China and Israel) in using modern capabilities of unmanned aerial vehicles by law enforcement agencies. Attention is devoted to the development of the aviation industry of Ukraine in terms of the design of Ukrainian unmanned aerial vehicles, and the prospects for their implementation in the activities of the National Police. The author outlines the main prospects for using unmanned aerial vehicles in the activities of police agencies and units. In particular, those related to the protection of public order, road safety, detection, suppression and counteraction to criminal and administrative offences, and protection and defence of human rights and freedoms, life and health. The scientific originality and practical significance of the research are that it highlights the current possibilities of using unmanned aerial vehicles by police authorities and units, outlines some issues of a working nature which require resolution, and, based on international experience, identifies the areas for improvement of the current legislation on using unmanned aerial vehicles by the National Police

Therefore, this unit as a component of the gendarmerie is built on the principle of a military unit. The gendarmerie, one of the few state institutions in France, has been in existence for over 200 years and has a status as DOI: 10.32370/IA_2021_03_07 a significant component of the country's armed forces and is an extremely important part of the police system. The gendarmerie is subordinated to the Ministry of Defense (on the authority of the Main Directorate), and on the ground - to the command of military districts. At the same time, the gendarmerie is at the operational disposal of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Ministry of Justice. Significant autonomy within the Armed Forces allows the gendarmerie to combine military functions with purely police and administrative ones. The difference between police and gendarmerie is that the police are civilian civil servants. They can wear civilian clothes and trade union and political freedoms. Gendarmes also have the status of servicemen and military ranks, always in uniform, not entitled to strike and are responsible for violations in accordance with military charters - from guardians to dismissal from service (for example, for the use of alcohol "in the performance of official duties" the gendarme is threatened arrest for up to 30 days). The need for the creation of the Austrian Special Forces was conditioned by the urgency of taking measures to ensure the safety of the flow of emigrants of Jewish nationality from the former USSR since in autumn 1973 against them was committed serious terrorist act. Special unit "Cobra" enters the warehouse of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and has got a double subordination: through direct combat engagement to the head of public safety, and in relation to personnel issues and logistics - the central command of the gendarmerie of the Austrian Ministry of Internal Affairs. Among the well-known British Special Political Service (Special Air Service, or SAS) is probably the best counterterrorism unit. Its component - Special Projects (SP) team - the main anti-terrorist squad. The Special Air Service and its Counter Revolutionary Warfare Squadron (CRW) unit, the Antirevolutionary Military Squadron, were founded in 1942. The feature of training SAS servicemen is to teach each soldier to possess all methods and means of combating terrorism. To achieve this, SAS trains all of its squadron through training cycles. Acquired skills are improved later in the SP-team's combat duties. The main thing in the work is the maximum approximation of training sessions to a real combat situation in the conduct of operations on the release of hostages, in the role of which are civilians. Anti-terrorist training of SAS and the development of practical measures for the release of hostages is facilitated by the fact that high-ranking members of the British Government, including the Prime Minister, are personally involved in it.

We argue that the lessons drawn by Guglielmin and colleagues (2022), from the Health in All Policies (HiAP) approach in the municipality of Kuopio, are of limited use to centralised health systems. There is a need for research more attuned to the circumstances of local governments that have little power over the provision of health programmes; yet can address a range of determinants of population health. In these cases, adopting a state-centric perspective may fail to capture the role of other actors such as NGOs and local branches of state agencies. Evidence from France shows that centralised health systems can foster HiAP locally through political commitment and dedicated coordination staff whose role is to mobilise and support NGOs, inhabitants, and other local branches of regional and central governments. We highlight, as three important challenges, the issue of legitimacy, funding and positioning of the HiAP instrument in the local government structure.

The political and social context of the Lombard enlightenment. The dawn of the Lombard enlightenment in the 1760’s was coincidental with the second and more radical wave of Habsburg reforms in the State of Milan, beginning with the adoption on 1st January 1760 of the new fiscal system based on the cadastral survey. In the following decade, new foundations were laid for the relationships between Church and State, a thorough overhaul of legislation and the judiciary was envisaged, new government agencies were established (prominent among them the Supreme Economic Council, chaired by Gian Rinaldo Carli and including Pietro Verri as a councillor), a new and competent bureaucracy replaced patrician rule, and State control was introduced over education, public health, and welfare. Earlier reforms, under Gianluca Pallavicini as plenipotentiary minister, had been largely confined to finance and administration; now the declared goal was public happiness, as described in Lodovico Muratori’s last work. At the same time, political power was decisively shifted from the Milan government to Vienna, where an Italian Department under chancellor Kaunitz’s supervision replaced the old and lethargic Italian Council. Another factor for change was the Seven Years’ War, which proved a hard test for the Austrian Monarchy and thus opened the way to further adjustments of the State machinery both at the centre and in the periphery. Moreover, the diplomatic revolution leading to a rapprochement with Bourbon France had the effect of neutralizing the Italian peninsula, thus making governments more confident and secure in adopting long-range reform policies. Compared with Naples or Florence, Milan was slower in opening itself to the currents of thought radiating from France and to a lesser extent from Britain in the age between Montesquieu’s Esprit des Lois and Rousseau’s Contrat social and Nouvelle Éloise. But when it did, it immediately established itself as one of the foremost European centres of the enlightenment, especially in the fields of criminal law and economic science. A peculiar feature of the Milanese experience, which lasted throughout Maria Theresa’s reign, was the close collaboration of leading intellectuals, such as Pietro Verri, Cesare Beccaria and Giuseppe Parini, with the Habsburg government.

Introduction 2021 was the year that NFTs got big—not just in value but also in terms of the cultural consciousness. When digital artist Beeple sold the portfolio of his 5,000 daily images at Christie’s for US$69 million, the art world was left intrigued, confused, and outraged in equal measure. Depending on who you asked, non-fungible tokens (NFTs) seemed to be either a quick cash-grab or the future of the art market (Bowden and Jones; Smee). Following the Beeple sale, articles started to appear indicating that the film industry was abuzz for NFTs. Independent filmmaker Kevin Smith was quick to announce that he planned to release his horror film Killroy Was Here as an NFT (Alexander); in September 2021 the James Bond film No Time to Die also unveiled a series of collectibles to coincide with the film’s much-delayed theatrical release (Natalee); the distribution and collectible platforms Vuele, NFT Studios, and Mogul Productions all emerged, and the industry rumour mill suggests more start-ups are en route (CurrencyWorks; NFT Studios; NewsBTC). Blockchain disciples say that the technology will solve all the problems of the Internet (Tewari; Norton; European Business Review); critics say it will only perpetuate existing accessibility and equality issues (Davis and Flatow; Klein). Those more circumspect will doubtless sit back until the dust settles, waiting to see what parts of so-called web3 will be genuinely integrated into the architecture of the Internet. Pamela Hutchinson puts it neatly in terms of the arts sector: “the NFT may revolutionise the art market, film funding and distribution. Or it might be an ecological disaster and a financial bubble, in which few actual movies change hands, and fraudsters get rich from other people’s intellectual property” (Hutchinson). There is an uptick in the literature around NFTs and blockchain (see Quiniou; Gayvoronskaya & Meinel); however, the technology remains unregulated and unstandardised (Yeung 212-14; Dimitropoulos 112-13). Similarly, the sheer amount of funding being put into fundamental technical, data, and security-related issues speaks volumes to the nascency of the space (Ossinger; Livni; Gayvoronskaya & Meinel 52-6). Put very briefly, NFTs are part of a given blockchain system; think of them, like cryptocurrency coins, as “units of value” within that system (Roose). NFTs were initially rolled out on Ethereum, though several other blockchains have now implemented their own NFT frameworks. NFTs are usually not the artwork itself, but rather a unique, un-copyable (hence, non-fungible) piece of code that is attached, linked, or connected to another digital file, be that an image, video, text, or something else entirely. NFTs are often referred to as a digital artwork’s “certificate of authenticity” (Roose). At the time of writing, it remains to be seen how widely blockchain and NFT technology will be implemented across the entertainment industries. However, this article aims to outline the current state of implementation in the film trade specifically, and to attempt to sort true potential from the hype. Beginning with an overview of the core issues around blockchain and NFTs as they apply to film properties and adjacent products, current implementations of the technology are outlined, before finishing with a hesitant glimpse into the potential future applications. The Issues and Conversation At the core of current conversations around blockchain are three topics: intellectual property and ownership, concentrations of power and control, and environmental impact. To this I would like to add a consideration of social capital, which I begin with briefly here. Both the film industry and “crypto” — if we take the latter to encompass the various facets of so-called ‘web3’ — are engines of social capital. In the case of cinema, its products are commodified and passed through a model that begins with exclusivity (theatrical release) before progressing to mass availability (home media, streaming). The cinematic object, i.e., an individual copy of a film, is, by virtue of its origins as a mass product of the twentieth century, fungible. The film is captured, copied, stored, distributed, and shared. The film-industrial model has always relied on social phenomena, word of mouth, critical discourse, and latterly on buzz across digital social media platforms. This is perhaps as distinct from fine art, where — at least for dealers — the content of the piece does not necessarily matter so much as verification of ownership and provenance. Similarly, web3, with its decentralised and often-anonymised processes, relies on a kind of social activity, or at least a recorded interaction wherein the chain is stamped and each iteration is updated across the system. Even without the current hype, web3 still relies a great deal on discourse, sharing, and community, particularly as it flattens the existing hierarchies of the Internet that linger from Web 2.0. In terms of NFTs, blockchain systems attach scarcity and uniqueness to digital objects. For now, that scarcity and uniqueness is resulting in financial value, though as Jonathan Beller argues the notion of value could — or perhaps should — be reconsidered as blockchain technology, and especially cryptocurrencies, evolve (Beller 217). Regardless, NFT advocates maintain that this is the future of all online activity. To questions of copyright, the structures of blockchain do permit some level of certainty around where a given piece of intellectual property emerged. This is particularly useful where there are transnational differences in recognition of copyright law, such as in France, for instance (Quiniou 112-13). The Berne Convention stipulates that “the subsistence of copyright does not rest on the compliance with formal requirements: rights will exist if the work meets the requirements for protection set out by national law and treaties” (Guadamuz 1373). However, there are still no legal structures underpinning even the most transparent of transactions, when an originator goes out of their way to transfer rights to the buyer of the accompanying NFT. The minimum requirement — even courtesy — for the assignment of rights is the identification of the work itself; as Guadamuz notes, this is tricky for NFTs as they are written in code (1374). The blockchain’s openness and transparency are its key benefits, but until the code can explicitly include (or concretely and permanently reference) the ‘content’ of an NFT, its utility as a system of ownership is questionable. Decentralisation, too, is raised consistently as a key positive characteristic of blockchain technology. Despite the energy required for this decentralisation (addressed shortly), it is true that, at least in its base code, blockchain is a technology with no centralised source of truth or verification. Instead, such verification is performed by every node on the chain. On the surface, for the film industry, this might mean modes of financing, rights management, and distribution chains that are not beholden to multinational media conglomerates, streamers like Netflix, niche intermediaries, or legacy studios. The result here would be a flattening of the terrain: breaking down studio and corporate gatekeeping in favour of a more democratised creative landscape. Creators and creative teams would work peer-to-peer, paying, contracting, servicing, and distribution via the blockchain, with iron-clad, publicly accessible tracking of transactions and ownership. The alternative, though, is that the same imbalances persist, just in a different form: this is outlined in the next section. As Hunter Vaughan writes, the film industry’s environmental impact has long been under-examined. Its practices are diverse, distributed, and hard to quantify. Cinematic images, Vaughan writes, “do not come from nothing, and they do not vanish into the air: they have always been generated by the earth and sun, by fossil fuels and chemical reactions, and our enjoyment of them has material consequences” (3). We believe that by watching a “green” film like Avatar we are doing good, but it implicates us in the dirty secret, an issue of “ignorance and of voluntary psychosis” where “we do not see who we are harming or how these practices are affecting the environment, and we routinely agree to accept the virtual as real” (5). Beyond questions of implication and eco-material conceptualisation, however, there are stark facts. In the 1920s, the Kodak Park Plant in New York drew 12 million gallons of water from Lake Ontario each day to produce film stock. As the twentieth century came to a close, this amount — for a single film plant — had grown to 35-53 million gallons per day. The waste water was perfunctorily “cleaned” and then dumped into surrounding rivers (72-3). This was just one plant, and one part of the filmmaking process. With the shift to digital, this cost might now be calculated in the extraction of precious metals used to make contemporary cameras, computers, or storage devices. Regardless, extrapolate outwards to a global film industry and one quickly realises the impact is almost beyond comprehension. Considering — let alone calculating — the carbon footprint of blockchain requires outlining some fundamentals of the technology. The two primary architectures of blockchain are Proof of Work (PoW) and Proof of Stake (PoS), both of which denote methods of adding and verifying new blocks to a chain. PoW was the first model, employed by Bitcoin and the first iteration of Ethereum. In a PoW model, each new block has a specific cryptographic hash. To confirm the new block, crypto miners use their systems to generate a target hash that is less than or equal to that of the block. The systems process these calculations quickly, as the goal is to be “the first miner with the target hash because that miner is the one who can update the blockchain and receive crypto rewards” (Daly). The race for block confirmation necessitates huge amounts of processing power to make these quick calculations. The PoS model differs in that miners are replaced by validators (or staking services where participants pool validation power). Rather than investing in computer power, validators invest in the blockchain’s coins, staking those coins (tokens) in a smart contract (think of this contract like a bank account or vault). When a new block is proposed, an algorithm chooses a validator based on the size of their stake; if the block is verified, the validator receives further cryptocurrency as a reward (Castor). Given the ubiquity and exponential growth of blockchain technology and its users, an accurate quantification of its carbon footprint is difficult. For some precedent, though, one might consider the impact of the Bitcoin blockchain, which runs on a PoW model. As the New York Times so succinctly puts it: “the process of creating Bitcoin to spend or trade consumes around 91 terawatt-hours of electricity annually, more than is used by Finland, a nation of about 5.5 million” (Huang, O’Neill and Tabuchi). The current Ethereum system (at time of writing), where the majority of NFT transactions take place, also runs on PoW, and it is estimated that a single Ethereum transaction is equivalent to nearly nine days of power consumption by an average US household (Digiconomist). Ethereum always intended to operate on a PoS system, and the transition to this new model is currently underway (Castor). Proof of Stake transactions use significantly less energy — the new Ethereum will supposedly be approximately 2,000 times more energy efficient (Beekhuizen). However, newer systems such as Solana have been explicit about their efficiency goals, stating that a single Solana transaction uses less energy (1,837 Joules, to be precise) than keeping an LED light on for one hour (36,000 J); one Ethereum transaction, for comparison, uses over 692 million J (Solana). In addition to energy usage, however, there is also the question of e-waste as a result of mining and general blockchain operations which, at the time of writing, for Bitcoin sits at around 32 kilotons per year, around the same as the consumer IT wastage of the Netherlands (de Vries and Stoll). How the growth in NFT awareness and adoption amplifies this impact remains to be seen, but depending on which blockchain they use, they may be wasting energy and resources by design. If using a PoW model, the more valuable the cryptocurrency used to make the purchase, the more energy (“gas”) required to authenticate the purchase across the chain. Images abound online of jerry-rigged crypto data centres of varying quality (see also efficiency and safety). With each NFT minted, sold, or traded, these centres draw — and thus waste, for gas — more and more energy. With increased public attention and scrutiny, cryptocurrencies are slowly realising that things could be better. As sustainable alternatives become more desirable and mainstream, it is safe to predict that many NFT marketplaces may migrate to Cardano, Solana, or other more efficient blockchain bases. For now, though, this article considers the existing implementations of NFTs and blockchain technology within the film industry. Current Implementations The current applications of NFTs in film centre around financing and distribution. In terms of the former, NFTs are saleable items that can raise capital for production, distribution, or marketing. As previously mentioned, director Kevin Smith launched Jay & Silent Bob’s Crypto Studio in order to finish and release Killroy Was Here. Smith released over 600 limited edition tokens, including one of the film itself (Moore). In October 2021, renowned Hong Kong director Wong Kar-wai sold an NFT with unreleased footage from his film In the Mood for Love at Sotheby’s for US$550,000 (Raybaud). Quentin Tarantino entered the arena in January 2022, auctioning uncut scenes from his 1994 film Pulp Fiction, despite the threat of legal action from the film’s original distributor Miramax (Dailey). In Australia, an early adopter of the technology is director Michael Beets, who works in virtual production and immersive experiences. His immersive 14-minute VR film Nezunoban (2020) was split into seven different chapters, and each chapter was sold as an NFT. Beets also works with artists to develop entry tickets that are their own piece of generative art; with these tickets and the chapters selling for hundreds of dollars at a time, Beets seems to have achieved the impossible: turning a profit on a short film (Fletcher). Another Australian writer-producer, Samuel Wilson, now based in Canada, suggests that the technology does encourage filmmakers to think differently about what they create: At the moment, I’m making NFTs from extra footage of my feature film Miles Away, which will be released early next year. In one way, it’s like a new age of behind-the-scenes/bonus features. I have 14 hours of DV tapes that I’m cutting into a short film which I will then sell in chapters over the coming months. One chapter will feature the dashing KJ Apa (Songbird, Riverdale) without his shirt on. So, hopefully that can turn some heads. (Wilson, in Fletcher) In addition to individual directors, a number of startup companies are also seeking to get in on the action. One of these is Vuele, which is best understood as a blockchain-based streaming service: an NFT Netflix, if you like. In addition to films themselves, the service will offer extra content as NFTs, including “behind the scenes content, bonus features, exclusive Q&As, and memorabilia” (CurrencyWorks). Vuele’s launch title is Zero Contact, directed by Rick Dugdale and starring Anthony Hopkins. The film is marketed as “the World’s First NFT Feature Film” (as at the time of writing, though, both Vuele and its flagship film have yet to launch). Also launching is NFT Studios, a blockchain-based production company that distributes the executive producer role to those buying into the project. NFT Studios is a decentralised administrative organisation (DAO), guided by tech experts, producers, and film industry intermediaries. NFT Studios is launching with A Wing and a Prayer, a biopic of aeronaut Brian Milton (NFT Studios), and will announce their full slate across festivals in 2022. In Australia, Culture Vault states that its aim is to demystify crypto and champion Australian artists’ rights and access to the space. Co-founder and CEO Michelle Grey is well aware of the aforementioned current social capital of NFTs, but is also acutely aware of the space’s opacity and the ubiquity of often machine-generated tat. “The early NFT space was in its infancy, there was a lot of crap around, but don’t forget there’s a lot of garbage in the traditional art world too,” she says (cited in Miller). Grey and her company effectively act like art dealers; intermediaries between the tech and art worlds. These new companies claim to be adhering to the principles of web3, often selling themselves as collectives, DAOs, or distributed administrative systems. But the entrenched tendencies of the film industry — particularly the persistent Hollywood system — are not so easily broken down. Vuele is a joint venture between CurrencyWorks and Enderby Entertainment. The former is a financial technology company setting up blockchain systems for businesses, including the establishment of branded digital currencies such as the controversial FreedomCoin (Memoria); the latter, Enderby, is a production company founded by Canadian film producer (and former investor relations expert in the oil and uranium sectors) Rick Dugdale (Wiesner). Similarly, NFT Studios is partnered with consulting and marketing agencies and blockchain venture capitalists (NFT Investments PLC). Depending on how charitable or cynical one is feeling, these start-ups are either helpful intermediaries to facilitate legacy media moving into NFT technology, or the first bricks in the capitalist wall to bar access for entry to other players. The Future Is… Buffering Marketplaces like Mintable, OpenSea, and Rarible do indeed make the minting and selling of NFTs fairly straightforward — if you’ve ever listed an item for sale on eBay or Facebook, you can probably mint an NFT. Despite this, the current major barrier for average punters to the NFT space remains technical knowledge. The principles of blockchain remain fairly opaque — even this author, who has been on a deep dive for this article, remains sceptical that widespread adoption across multiple applications and industries is feasible. Even so, as Rennie notes, “the unknown is not what blockchain technology is, or even what it is for (there are countless ‘use cases’), but how it structures the actions of those who use it” (235). At the time of writing, a great many commentators and a small handful of scholars are speculating about the role of the metaverse in the creative space. If the endgame of the metaverse is realised, i.e., a virtual, interactive space where users can interact, trade, and consume entertainment, the role of creators, dealers, distributors, and other brokers and players will be up-ended, and have to re-settle once again. Film industry practitioners might look to the games space to see what the road might look like, but then again, in an industry that is — at its best — somewhat resistant to change, this may simply be a fad that blows over. Blockchain’s current employment as a get-rich-quick mechanism for the algorithmic literati and as a computational extension of existing power structures suggests nothing more than another techno-bubble primed to burst (Patrickson 591-2; Klein). Despite the aspirational commentary surrounding distributed administrative systems and organisations, the current implementations are restricted, for now, to startups like NFT Studios. In terms of cinema, it does remain to be seen whether the deployment of NFTs will move beyond a kind of “Netflix with tchotchkes” model, or a variant of crowdfunding with perks. Once Vuele and NFT Studios launch properly, we may have a sense of how this all will play out, particularly alongside less corporate-driven, more artistically-minded initiatives like that of Michael Beets and Culture Vault. It is possible, too, that blockchain technology may streamline the mechanics of the industry in terms of automating or simplifying parts of the production process, particularly around contracts, financing, licensing. This would obviously remove some of the associated labour and fees, but would also de-couple long-established parts and personnel of the industry — would Hollywood and similar industrial-entertainment complexes let this happen? As with any of the many revolutions that have threatened to kill or resurrect the (allegedly) long-suffering cinematic object, we just have to wait, and watch. References Alexander, Bryan. “Kevin Smith Reveals Why He’s Auctioning Off New His Film ‘Killroy Was Here’ as an NFT.” USA TODAY, 15 Apr. 2021. <https://www.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/movies/2021/04/15/kevin-smith-auctioning-new-film-nft-killroy-here/7244602002/>. Beekhuizen, Carl. “Ethereum’s Energy Usage Will Soon Decrease by ~99.95%.” Ethereum Foundation Blog, 18 May 2021. <https://blog.ethereum.org/2021/05/18/country-power-no-more/>. Beller, Jonathan. “Economic Media: Crypto and the Myth of Total Liquidity.” Australian Humanities Review 66 (2020): 215-225. Beller, Jonathan. The Cinematic Mode of Production: Attention Economy and the Society of the Spectacle. Hanover, NH: Dartmouth College P, 2006. Bowden, James, and Edward Thomas Jones. “NFTs Are Much Bigger than an Art Fad – Here’s How They Could Change the World.” The Conversation, 26 Apr. 2021. <http://theconversation.com/nfts-are-much-bigger-than-an-art-fad-heres-how-they-could-change-the-world-159563>. Cardano. “Cardano, Ouroboros.” 14 Feb. 2022 <https://cardano.org/ouroboros/>. Castor, Amy. “Why Ethereum Is Switching to Proof of Stake and How It Will Work.” MIT Technology Review, 4 Mar. 2022. <https://www.technologyreview.com/2022/03/04/1046636/ethereum-blockchain-proof-of-stake/>. CurrencyWorks. “Vuele - CurrencyWorks™.” 3 Feb. 2022 <https://currencyworks.io/project/vuele/>. Dailey, Natasha. “Quentin Tarantino Will Sell His ‘Pulp Fiction’ NFTs This Month despite a Lawsuit from the Film’s Producer Miramax.” Business Insider, 5 Jan. 2022. <https://www.businessinsider.com.au/quentin-tarantino-to-sell-pulp-fiction-nft-despite-miramax-lawsuit-2022-1>. Daly, Lyle. “What Is Proof of Work (PoW) in Crypto?” The Motley Fool, 27 Sep. 2021. <https://www.fool.com/investing/stock-market/market-sectors/financials/cryptocurrency-stocks/proof-of-work/>. Davis, Kathleen, and Ira Flatow. “Will Blockchain Really Change the Way the Internet Runs?” Science Friday, 23 July 2021. <https://www.sciencefriday.com/segments/blockchain-internet/>. De Vries, Alex, and Christian Stoll. “Bitcoin’s Growing E-Waste Problem.” Resources, Conservation & Recycling 175 (2021): 1-11. Dimitropoulos, Georgios. “Global Currencies and Domestic Regulation: Embedding through Enabling?” In Regulating Blockchain: Techno-Social and Legal Challenges. Eds. Philipp Hacker et al. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2019. 112–139. Edelman, Gilad. “What Is Web3, Anyway?” Wired, Nov. 2021. <https://www.wired.com/story/web3-gavin-wood-interview/>. 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What NFTs Mean for Film.” BFI, 22 July 2021. <https://www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-sound/features/nfts-non-fungible-tokens-blockchain-film-funding-revolution-hype>. Klein, Ezra. “A Viral Case against Crypto, Explored.” The Ezra Klein Show, n.d. 7 Apr. 2022 <https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/05/opinion/ezra-klein-podcast-dan-olson.html>. Livni, Ephrat. “Venture Capital Funding for Crypto Companies Is Surging.” The New York Times, 1 Dec. 2021. <https://www.nytimes.com/2021/12/01/business/dealbook/crypto-venture-capital.html>. Memoria, Francisco. “Popular Firearms Marketplace GunBroker to Launch ‘FreedomCoin’ Stablecoin.” CryptoGlobe, 30 Jan. 2019. <https://www.cryptoglobe.com/latest/2019/01/popular-firearm-marketplace-gunbroker-to-launch-freedomcoin-stablecoin/>. 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Rennie, Ellie. “The Challenges of Distributed Administrative Systems.” Australian Humanities Review 66 (2020): 233-239. Roose, Kevin. “What are NFTs?” The New York Times, 18 Mar. 2022. <https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2022/03/18/technology/nft-guide.html>. Smee, Sebastian. “Will NFTs Transform the Art World? Are They Even Art?” Washington Post, 18 Dec. 2021. <https://www.washingtonpost.com/arts-entertainment/2021/12/18/nft-art-faq/>. Solana. “Solana’s Energy Use Report: November 2021.” Solana, 24 Nov. 2021. <https://solana.com/news/solana-energy-usage-report-november-2021>. Tewari, Hitesh. “Four Ways Blockchain Could Make the Internet Safer, Fairer and More Creative.” The Conversation, 12 July 2019. <http://theconversation.com/four-ways-blockchain-could-make-the-internet-safer-fairer-and-more-creative-118706>. Vaughan, Hunter. Hollywood’s Dirtiest Secret: The Hidden Environmental Costs of the Movies. New York: Columbia UP, 2019. 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Concernant plus de 100.000 travailleurs, près de 800.000 familles et plus de 2.000 entreprises, le dispositif titre-service est au cœur de l’agenda politique compte tenu de l’importance du budget public mobilisé qui s’élève à plus d’un milliard d’euros pour 2009. Ce dispositif témoigne d’une évolution profonde des modes de régulation publique dans le champ des services aux personnes désormais ouvert à une mise en concurrence de prestataires très diversifiés. Ainsi des organisations aussi diverses que des ASBL, des entreprises d’insertion, des agences d’intérim, des PME ou des CPAS opèrent aujourd’hui au sein de ce dispositif. Ce numéro présente les résultats d’une recherche financée par Service public fédéral de la politique scientifique et réalisée par l’équipe économie sociale du CERISIS/CIRTES (UCL) et du centre d’économie sociale (ULg). Cette recherche porte sur la qualité de l’emploi et de l’organisation du service dans ce champ d’activité et ce de manière comparative entre les différents types d’opérateurs. Une des spécificités centrales du système titre-service est d’imposer une triangulation de la relation de service, en plaçant cette dernière sous l’égide d’une entreprise agréée. L’étude montre que la qualité d’emploi et de l’organisation du service est surtout garantie par une «triangulation» de la relation de service, c’est-à-dire un réel investissement de l’entreprise dans l’accompagnement du travailleur et de l’usager. Si certains prestataires, tels que les organisations d’aide au domicile (ASBL ou organisations publiques agréées par les régions) et les organisations d’économie sociale ou publiques, poursuivant une mission d’insertion, encadrent davantage leurs travailleurs et leurs utilisateurs, d’autres développent dans les faits, un mode de prestation «mandataire», dans lequel l’entreprise est avant tout chargée des formalités administratives mais où elle n’assure que peu d’encadrement de la relation de service tissée entre l’utilisateur et le travailleur. L’enjeu ici est de savoir dans quelles circonstances et dans quelle mesure une telle évolution est acceptable (voire souhaitable ?) pour les différentes parties prenantes, y compris bien sûr pour les travailleurs. Au sein des entreprises à but lucratif, il convient de différencier assez nettement les sociétés de travail intérimaire des autres sociétés commerciales, généralement des PME. Les sociétés d’intérim semblent privilégier leur capacité d’adaptation aux desiderata de leurs utilisateurs et la minimisation des coûts, au détriment de la qualité des emplois qu’elles rendent aussi flexibles que possible. Cette volonté de maximiser productivité et rentabilité semble être moins prégnante dans le chef des autres opérateurs privés à but lucratif hors intérim. Du point de vue financier, il faut souligner que si les prestataires bénéficient tous de la subvention titre-service, une diversité apparaît quant aux sources complémentaires de financement public (aides à l’emploi, subsides régionaux). Une analyse de la viabilité financière des différents types d’opérateurs titre-service s’avère particulièrement complexe compte tenu de cette diversité, des commissions paritaires compétentes et des performances différenciées en matière de qualité d’emploi et d’organisation de service. Il ressort des simulations qu’un travailleur équivalent temps plein (ETP) d’ancienneté nulle et sans aide à l’emploi dégage une marge positive (parfois faiblement) chez la plupart des prestataires. Avec aide à l’emploi (toujours sans ancienneté), un ETP est (très) rentable chez l’ensemble des prestataires, en particulier chez ceux qui cumulent diverses sources de financement. Par contre, après quatre ans d’ancienneté, la marge dégagée par un ETP est négative chez la quasi-totalité des prestataires compte tenu des effets liés à l’accroissement de l’ancienneté des travailleurs et à la dégressivité tant des aides à l’emploi que de certaines subventions régionales. Par conséquent, seuls les prestataires dont le taux d’activité (le rapport entre les heures de ménage prestées au domicile des utilisateurs – et donc subsidiées – et le total des heures payées au travailleur) est (très) élevé parviennent à maintenir une marge positive. Il va de soi que la rentabilité «globale» d’une organisation dépendra du nombre de travailleurs avec et sans aide à l’emploi ainsi que de l’ancienneté de l’ensemble du personnel. Différents enjeux doivent être pointés d’un point de vue de politique économique Même si la régulation du quasi-marché lié au titre-service a considérablement évolué, il est primordial que les pouvoirs publics s’assurent de la conformité des prestataires aux exigences de l’agrément qui leur est octroyé et qu’ils consolident la régulation du système par exemple par l’imposition de formation et d’un contrat à durée indéterminée après 6 mois. En effet, l’importance très considérable du financement public dans ce quasi-marché justifie qu’il soit nettement subordonné à la réalisation des objectifs définis par le dispositif, en particulier la création d’emplois de qualité et durables. Des risques de confusion entre des métiers pourtant distincts : l’étude montre que certaines organisations titre-service permettent la prestation de services qui relèvent des missions propres aux aides familiales. Les pouvoirs publics doivent donc être vigilants quant aux risques de confusion des métiers, d’autant plus que l’information est loin d’être claire pour les usagers. La plupart des aides à l’emploi sont dégressives sur deux à quatre ans alors que les coûts salariaux des entreprises augmentent du simple fait de l’ancienneté croissante du personnel et des sauts d’index. On peut ainsi douter de l’efficacité économique d’aides qui rendent confortable le lancement d’une entreprise titre-service tout en créant des incitants à la rotation des travailleurs; L’augmentation du prix et l’accessibilité du service : il serait utile de procéder à une étude de marché pour voir dans quelle mesure une marge de manœuvre existe encore. Si les augmentations antérieures de prix ne semblent pas avoir affecté le volume total des titres-services échangés, certains utilisateurs plus fragilisés ont sans doute été évincés. Pour maintenir leur accès au service, il faut peut-être réfléchir à des mécanismes complémentaires. En effet, il n’est pas nécessairement efficace d’associer deux objectifs (créer de l’emploi et rendre accessible le service à tous) à un même instrument. D’autres instruments complémentaires pourraient être envisagés telles qu’une intervention des employeurs à l’instar de ce qui se pratique en France pour le «chèque emploi service universel» (Cesu). Comme pour les chèques-repas, il s’agirait alors d’un élément de politique salariale. Des CPAS, par exemple, pourraient acheter des titres-services pour des usagers plus vulnérables.

Concernant plus de 100.000 travailleurs, près de 800.000 familles et plus de 2.000 entreprises, le dispositif titre-service est au cœur de l’agenda politique compte tenu de l’importance du budget public mobilisé qui s’élève à plus d’un milliard d’euros pour 2009. Ce dispositif témoigne d’une évolution profonde des modes de régulation publique dans le champ des services aux personnes désormais ouvert à une mise en concurrence de prestataires très diversifiés. Ainsi des organisations aussi diverses que des ASBL, des entreprises d’insertion, des agences d’intérim, des PME ou des CPAS opèrent aujourd’hui au sein de ce dispositif. Ce numéro présente les résultats d’une recherche financée par Service public fédéral de la politique scientifique et réalisée par l’équipe économie sociale du CERISIS/CIRTES (UCL) et du centre d’économie sociale (ULg). Cette recherche porte sur la qualité de l’emploi et de l’organisation du service dans ce champ d’activité et ce de manière comparative entre les différents types d’opérateurs. Une des spécificités centrales du système titre-service est d’imposer une triangulation de la relation de service, en plaçant cette dernière sous l’égide d’une entreprise agréée. L’étude montre que la qualité d’emploi et de l’organisation du service est surtout garantie par une «triangulation» de la relation de service, c’est-à-dire un réel investissement de l’entreprise dans l’accompagnement du travailleur et de l’usager. Si certains prestataires, tels que les organisations d’aide au domicile (ASBL ou organisations publiques agréées par les régions) et les organisations d’économie sociale ou publiques, poursuivant une mission d’insertion, encadrent davantage leurs travailleurs et leurs utilisateurs, d’autres développent dans les faits, un mode de prestation «mandataire», dans lequel l’entreprise est avant tout chargée des formalités administratives mais où elle n’assure que peu d’encadrement de la relation de service tissée entre l’utilisateur et le travailleur. L’enjeu ici est de savoir dans quelles circonstances et dans quelle mesure une telle évolution est acceptable (voire souhaitable ?) pour les différentes parties prenantes, y compris bien sûr pour les travailleurs. Au sein des entreprises à but lucratif, il convient de différencier assez nettement les sociétés de travail intérimaire des autres sociétés commerciales, généralement des PME. Les sociétés d’intérim semblent privilégier leur capacité d’adaptation aux desiderata de leurs utilisateurs et la minimisation des coûts, au détriment de la qualité des emplois qu’elles rendent aussi flexibles que possible. Cette volonté de maximiser productivité et rentabilité semble être moins prégnante dans le chef des autres opérateurs privés à but lucratif hors intérim. Du point de vue financier, il faut souligner que si les prestataires bénéficient tous de la subvention titre-service, une diversité apparaît quant aux sources complémentaires de financement public (aides à l’emploi, subsides régionaux). Une analyse de la viabilité financière des différents types d’opérateurs titre-service s’avère particulièrement complexe compte tenu de cette diversité, des commissions paritaires compétentes et des performances différenciées en matière de qualité d’emploi et d’organisation de service. Il ressort des simulations qu’un travailleur équivalent temps plein (ETP) d’ancienneté nulle et sans aide à l’emploi dégage une marge positive (parfois faiblement) chez la plupart des prestataires. Avec aide à l’emploi (toujours sans ancienneté), un ETP est (très) rentable chez l’ensemble des prestataires, en particulier chez ceux qui cumulent diverses sources de financement. Par contre, après quatre ans d’ancienneté, la marge dégagée par un ETP est négative chez la quasi-totalité des prestataires compte tenu des effets liés à l’accroissement de l’ancienneté des travailleurs et à la dégressivité tant des aides à l’emploi que de certaines subventions régionales. Par conséquent, seuls les prestataires dont le taux d’activité (le rapport entre les heures de ménage prestées au domicile des utilisateurs – et donc subsidiées – et le total des heures payées au travailleur) est (très) élevé parviennent à maintenir une marge positive. Il va de soi que la rentabilité «globale» d’une organisation dépendra du nombre de travailleurs avec et sans aide à l’emploi ainsi que de l’ancienneté de l’ensemble du personnel. Différents enjeux doivent être pointés d’un point de vue de politique économique Même si la régulation du quasi-marché lié au titre-service a considérablement évolué, il est primordial que les pouvoirs publics s’assurent de la conformité des prestataires aux exigences de l’agrément qui leur est octroyé et qu’ils consolident la régulation du système par exemple par l’imposition de formation et d’un contrat à durée indéterminée après 6 mois. En effet, l’importance très considérable du financement public dans ce quasi-marché justifie qu’il soit nettement subordonné à la réalisation des objectifs définis par le dispositif, en particulier la création d’emplois de qualité et durables. Des risques de confusion entre des métiers pourtant distincts : l’étude montre que certaines organisations titre-service permettent la prestation de services qui relèvent des missions propres aux aides familiales. Les pouvoirs publics doivent donc être vigilants quant aux risques de confusion des métiers, d’autant plus que l’information est loin d’être claire pour les usagers. La plupart des aides à l’emploi sont dégressives sur deux à quatre ans alors que les coûts salariaux des entreprises augmentent du simple fait de l’ancienneté croissante du personnel et des sauts d’index. On peut ainsi douter de l’efficacité économique d’aides qui rendent confortable le lancement d’une entreprise titre-service tout en créant des incitants à la rotation des travailleurs; L’augmentation du prix et l’accessibilité du service : il serait utile de procéder à une étude de marché pour voir dans quelle mesure une marge de manœuvre existe encore. Si les augmentations antérieures de prix ne semblent pas avoir affecté le volume total des titres-services échangés, certains utilisateurs plus fragilisés ont sans doute été évincés. Pour maintenir leur accès au service, il faut peut-être réfléchir à des mécanismes complémentaires. En effet, il n’est pas nécessairement efficace d’associer deux objectifs (créer de l’emploi et rendre accessible le service à tous) à un même instrument. D’autres instruments complémentaires pourraient être envisagés telles qu’une intervention des employeurs à l’instar de ce qui se pratique en France pour le «chèque emploi service universel» (Cesu). Comme pour les chèques-repas, il s’agirait alors d’un élément de politique salariale. Des CPAS, par exemple, pourraient acheter des titres-services pour des usagers plus vulnérables.