Academic literature on the topic 'Public action, countries of the European Union, 1970 -'

The European Union pursues on the international scene to safeguards its values, support the rule of law, foster the sustainable economic, social and environmental development and support the integration of all countries into the world economy including through the progressive abolition of barriers on international trade. Trade agreements are used as an effective tool to this end. Within its present external action, European Union tries to cover its trade relations regionally homogenously. Through regionally homogenous trade agreements, Union can export its values, principles, and rules easier, which is also a way of strengthening its position geopolitically. This paper analyses trade agreements concluded between the European Union and candidate countries from Western Balkans. All these agreements recognise the accession to the European Union as their final goal. To achieve it, candidate countries need to fulfil various conditions, including the approximation and harmonisation of their legal orders with the EU acquis. Just recently (in November 2020), Western Balkans countries' leaders announced the creation of Regional Common Market which shall serve as a tool for approximation with European Union's Internal Market Rules. To this regard, author analysed the European Economic Area, where the export of European Union's Internal Market Rules was successfully realised, and which might therefore serve as an example for pre-accession cooperation between Western Balkans countries and European Union. Author chose the area of public procurement as a model case study.

Many European Union (EU) Member States show a decline in tuberculosis (TB) incidence and many have low incidence rates (15 countries reported less than 10 cases per 100,000 population in 2006). However, despite the progress in curbing the TB epidemic, the disease remains a public health threat in the EU. The epidemiological patterns are still very diverse between countries and control efforts are challenged by problems such as multidrug-resistant (MDR TB) and extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis (XDR TB), TB/HIV co-infection and the concentration of cases within vulnerable groups.

On 1 May 2004 ten new countries will join the European Union (EU), which as a result will comprise 25 culturally quite different countries. Each enlargement of the EU so far has been a difficult experience for both the existing member states and the new entrants, since each membership change has altered the structure and the sharing of costs and benefits of membership. Furthermore, each new member brings its own traditions, preferences, strengths and weaknesses, including the mental health of its population and its psychiatric services. Are we ready for the changes to come?

Since 1970, the intensity of implementing budgetary policies in the two categories of states, developed states, and emerging states, has been observed in Europe. These policies had the effect of increasing the levels of taxation, also called progressive taxation, at that time. To stop this phenomenon of progressive taxation, the Maastricht Treaty and then the Stability and Growth Pact have had the effect of forcing states to adopt different fiscal policies to reduce the feeling of fiscal pressure made necessary by budgetary deficiencies and public debt accumulated over time. In fact, since the 1990s, each Member State of the European Union has interpreted the treaties mentioned above separately; some states reduced spending, while others preferred to impose more significant fiscal pressure on citizens by raising taxes and fees. In our article, we analyze and disseminate the general fiscal pressure of some developed countries in the European Union. We identify the economic priority indicators that influence the phenomenon of fiscal pressure, such as the level of direct taxes, indirect taxes, the growth rate of gross domestic product, and the level of public debt, providing an overview of economic development over the last three decades.To this end, the authors have developed an econometric model that captures the factors that influence the fiscal pressure in several developed countries of the European Union in the period 1995-2018.

Within the widening European Union, large-scale movements of people, animals and food-products increasingly contribute to the potential for spread of communicable diseases. The EU was given a mandate for public health action only in 1992, under the Treaty of European Union ("Maastricht Treaty"), which was broadened in the 1997 with the Treaty of Amsterdam. While all EU countries have statutory requirements for notifying communicable diseases, national and regional communicable disease surveillance practices vary considerably (1). The Network Committee (NC) for the Epidemiological Surveillance and Control of Communicable Diseases in the EU was established in 1998 to harmonise these activities.

Pharmaceutical policies form a substantial part of health care services, from the point of view of both equity and efficiency goals. Expenditure on pharmaceuticals has been growing steadily over the last few decades, and countries are finding the financing of drugs increasingly difficult. This article surveys the changes in pharmaceutical policies in the E.U. countries from the mid-1980s through the 1990s. It focuses primarily on policies dealing with cost control of publicly funded pharmaceuticals. In their analysis of these changes, the authors classify policies (or “packages of measures”), map out their incidence in each country, and assess their impact on the control of public pharmaceutical spending. They conclude that the E.U. countries are taking up apparently similar measures—dressing like penguins in a row—despite the limited effectiveness and limited evaluation of many of the measures adopted. The authors also analyze the role of national and international actors (most prominently, the European Union) in defining public pharmaceutical policies; look at how innovative policy ideas could be connected with the economic, political, and social interests that mold public action in this field; and propose new lines of investigation.

The extent of government deficits and debt has been one of the most debated issues in recent years. However, very little has been contributed about their dynamics. Yet, the issue of entering into and exiting from excessive deficits will be critical in the European monetary union since the Stability and Growth Pact rules out deficits larger than three percent of GDP, except strictly defined unusual conditions. This paper provides a transition data analysis of the dynamics of public deficits. It shows the asymmetric role played by the economic determinants in this dynamics and estimates the evolution of the probability of entering into and exiting from excessive deficits for each one of the member states of the European Union since 1970. It also reveals how the concurrence of some minor changes may produce a major switchover in public finance outcomes. Finally, it points to the fragility of some countries even if they are now out of excessive deficits.

Numerous specialized and unauthorized landfills and huge volumes of waste are a serious problem for the use of minerals. The country's system of solid waste management, based on burial, incinera-tion, partial processing, does not fully comply with the climatic and socio-economic characteristics of the Arctic zone of the Russian Federation. Russia is one of eight members of the Arctic Council, international organizations promoting development of cooperation in the field of environmental protection and sustainable develop-ment of circumpolar areas. In 2001, the Arctic Council approved an Action Plan for the elimination of pollution in the Arctic. For the implementation of the Plan, a specially created expert group on waste supports and oversees pilot projects demonstrating environmentally friendly waste management in the Arctic. Waste dis-posal methods that do not meet environmental standards can contribute to soil, water and air pollution through toxic emissions. Improper waste management can also lead to transboundary emissions. While there is clear progress in this direction in Europe due to the implementation of effective public policies on waste and a focus on the transition to a circular economy, significant amounts of valuable resources remain untapped as a result of ineffective waste management in practice.

"On 16 April 2020, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) released preliminary figures according to which the collective Official Development Assistance (ODA) from the European Union (EU) and its Member States to developing countries amounted to 75.2 billion in 2019, representing 55.2% of global assistance. The EU and its Member States therefore maintain their position as the largest international aid donor. In spite of the vast amount of resources spent annually by the EU, there is widespread perception that the EU punches below its weight. Notwithstanding the undeniable positive impact that the EU external policies have on the ground, the EU’s role in international development remains mostly invisible. This paper presents the perception of the EU and EU’s policies abroad and makes the case for the necessity of an integrated and fully coordinated EU Public Diplomacy (PD) capable of communicating effectively and strengthening EU’s role as a global actor. It argues that culture has a substantial potential in Europe’s international relations, making the case for the necessity of an integrated and tailor-made EU Cultural Diplomacy. This paper shows that culture is a worthwhile investment in driving economic growth. Failure to capitalise on this would be a huge missed opportunity for Europe. Keywords: European Union, Economic Support to Developing Countries, Economic Growth, Public Diplomacy, Cultural Diplomacy, European External Action Service JEL classification: O10, Z10 "

Malignant diseases are the second most common cause of morbidity and mortality, on the global scale, but also in European Union and Serbia. Recognizing this problem, the European Commission has been continuously investing funds into projects aimed against cancer for the past decade. One such project is the Joint Action "Innovative Partnership for Action Against Cancer", which launched in April 2018 and will wrap up in December 2021. The project is implemented within the Third Health Programme of the European Union, which funded the project. "Innovative Partnership for Action Against Cancer" encompasses 24 countries, representing 44 partner institutions. The National Institute of Public Health of Slovenia (NIPHS) coordinates the project. Project activities are implemented within 10 work packages, of which four are horizontal and mandatory (coordination, dissemination, evaluation and integration into national policies and sustainability), while 6 are the so-called "vertical" work packages, namely: cancer prevention, genomics in cancer control and care, cancer information and registries, challenges in cancer care, innovative therapies in cancer and governance of integrated and comprehensive cancer care. Each of the work packages has its objectives, activities and outcomes. The roadmap for implementation and sustainability of cancer control actions represents the key outcome of work package 4 (Integration in national policies and sustainability), as well as of the entire Joint Action. Work package 4 interviewed the representatives of countries participating in Joint Action to gain insight into their experiences and challenges in implementing cancer control policies. Some of these challenges have also been recognized in Serbia, leading the Government of the Republic of Serbia to adopt the cancer control program in the Republic of Serbia for the period 2020-2022. In the same year, 2020, the World Cancer Day (4 February) was commemorated with the event "Europe's Beating Cancer Plan - Let's Strive for More" in the European Parliament, and a year later, the European Commission presented the Europe's Beating Cancer Plan. Three Joint Action activities implemented thus far made a great contribution to the control of malignant diseases, many documents, instructions, programs were elaborated, and then used as key inputs into the new Europe's Beating Cancer Plan.

Cette thèse a pour objet de retracer la trajectoire de l’action culturelle européenne de sa mise à l’agenda dans les années 1970 à la formulation de son dernier programme de financement Europe Créative en 2021. Elle étudie la manière dont celle-ci a évolué suivant les différents paradigmes qui lui sont attachés - exception culturelle, diversité, créativité - et leur impact sur la formulation des programmes culturels de l’Union européenne. De plus, cette recherche donne à voir comment cette évolution s’inscrit dans un processus au long cours de métamorphose de l’action publique en Europe.À ce titre, ce travail propose de s’appuyer sur la méthode du process tracing pour expliciter les mécanismes causaux permettant à l’action culturelle de s’institutionnaliser à cette échelle. La sédimentation de programmes et les changements de paradigmes nous invitent à développer un cadre d’analyse s’appuyant sur la littérature néo-institutionnaliste et sur une approche cognitive et sociologique de l’action publique européenne. À partir d’une démarche méthodologique qualitative, cette recherche révèle les dynamiques internes et externes de l’action culturelle européenne qui alimentent son processus d’institutionnalisation. Elle démontre la pertinence de saisir les différentes formes de justification d’une telle action publique, cette dernière évoluant dans un environnement complexe et multi-niveaux, composé à la fois d’acteurs nationaux et européens, professionnels, bureaucratiques et politiques. Cette thèse démontre de fait que l’action culturelle européenne met en tension une logique classique d’intégration avec les différenciations continues des programmes et modes d’actions
This thesis aims to trace the trajectory of European cultural action from its emergence on the agenda in the 1970s to the formulation of its latest funding program, Creative Europe, in 2021. It explores how this trajectory has evolved in line with various attached paradigms—cultural exception, diversity, creativity—and their impact on the formulation of cultural programs within the European Union. Moreover, this research illustrates how this evolution is part of a long-term process of transformation of public action in Europe. In this regard, the study proposes to employ the process tracing method to elucidate the causal mechanisms enabling European cultural action to institutionalize on this scale. The sedimentation of cultural programs and paradigm shifts prompt the development of an analytical framework drawing on neo-institutionalist literature and a cognitive and sociological approach to European public action. Through a qualitative methodological approach, this research uncovers the internal and external dynamics of European cultural action that fuel its institutionalization process. It demonstrates the relevance of understanding the various justifications for such public action, which evolves in a complex and multi-level environment, involving both national and European actors, professionals, bureaucratic, and political elements. In essence, this thesis shows that European cultural action creates tension between a classical integration logic and the continuous differentiations of programs and modes of action

Nationalism: Past as Prologue began as a single volume being compiled by Ad Akande, a scholar from South Africa, who proposed it to me as co-author about two years ago. The original idea was to examine how the damaging roots of nationalism have been corroding political systems around the world, and creating dangerous obstacles for necessary international cooperation. Since I (Bruce E. Johansen) has written profusely about climate change (global warming, a.k.a. infrared forcing), I suggested a concerted effort in that direction. This is a worldwide existential threat that affects every living thing on Earth. It often compounds upon itself, so delays in reducing emissions of fossil fuels are shortening the amount of time remaining to eliminate the use of fossil fuels to preserve a livable planet. Nationalism often impedes solutions to this problem (among many others), as nations place their singular needs above the common good. Our initial proposal got around, and abstracts on many subjects arrived. Within a few weeks, we had enough good material for a 100,000-word book. The book then fattened to two moderate volumes and then to four two very hefty tomes. We tried several different titles as good submissions swelled. We also discovered that our best contributors were experts in their fields, which ranged the world. We settled on three stand-alone books:” 1/ nationalism and racial justice. Our first volume grew as the growth of Black Lives Matter following the brutal killing of George Floyd ignited protests over police brutality and other issues during 2020, following the police assassination of Floyd in Minneapolis. It is estimated that more people took part in protests of police brutality during the summer of 2020 than any other series of marches in United States history. This includes upheavals during the 1960s over racial issues and against the war in Southeast Asia (notably Vietnam). We choose a volume on racism because it is one of nationalism’s main motive forces. This volume provides a worldwide array of work on nationalism’s growth in various countries, usually by authors residing in them, or in the United States with ethnic ties to the nation being examined, often recent immigrants to the United States from them. Our roster of contributors comprises a small United Nations of insightful, well-written research and commentary from Indonesia, New Zealand, Australia, China, India, South Africa, France, Portugal, Estonia, Hungary, Russia, Poland, Kazakhstan, Georgia, and the United States. Volume 2 (this one) describes and analyzes nationalism, by country, around the world, except for the United States; and 3/material directly related to President Donald Trump, and the United States. The first volume is under consideration at the Texas A & M University Press. The other two are under contract to Nova Science Publishers (which includes social sciences). These three volumes may be used individually or as a set. Environmental material is taken up in appropriate places in each of the three books. * * * * * What became the United States of America has been strongly nationalist since the English of present-day Massachusetts and Jamestown first hit North America’s eastern shores. The country propelled itself across North America with the self-serving ideology of “manifest destiny” for four centuries before Donald Trump came along. Anyone who believes that a Trumpian affection for deportation of “illegals” is a new thing ought to take a look at immigration and deportation statistics in Adam Goodman’s The Deportation Machine: America’s Long History of Deporting Immigrants (Princeton University Press, 2020). Between 1920 and 2018, the United States deported 56.3 million people, compared with 51.7 million who were granted legal immigration status during the same dates. Nearly nine of ten deportees were Mexican (Nolan, 2020, 83). This kind of nationalism, has become an assassin of democracy as well as an impediment to solving global problems. Paul Krugman wrote in the New York Times (2019:A-25): that “In their 2018 book, How Democracies Die, the political scientists Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt documented how this process has played out in many countries, from Vladimir Putin’s Russia, to Recep Erdogan’s Turkey, to Viktor Orban’s Hungary. Add to these India’s Narendra Modi, China’s Xi Jinping, and the United States’ Donald Trump, among others. Bit by bit, the guardrails of democracy have been torn down, as institutions meant to serve the public became tools of ruling parties and self-serving ideologies, weaponized to punish and intimidate opposition parties’ opponents. On paper, these countries are still democracies; in practice, they have become one-party regimes….And it’s happening here [the United States] as we speak. If you are not worried about the future of American democracy, you aren’t paying attention” (Krugmam, 2019, A-25). We are reminded continuously that the late Carl Sagan, one of our most insightful scientific public intellectuals, had an interesting theory about highly developed civilizations. Given the number of stars and planets that must exist in the vast reaches of the universe, he said, there must be other highly developed and organized forms of life. Distance may keep us from making physical contact, but Sagan said that another reason we may never be on speaking terms with another intelligent race is (judging from our own example) could be their penchant for destroying themselves in relatively short order after reaching technological complexity. This book’s chapters, introduction, and conclusion examine the worldwide rise of partisan nationalism and the damage it has wrought on the worldwide pursuit of solutions for issues requiring worldwide scope, such scientific co-operation public health and others, mixing analysis of both. We use both historical description and analysis. This analysis concludes with a description of why we must avoid the isolating nature of nationalism that isolates people and encourages separation if we are to deal with issues of world-wide concern, and to maintain a sustainable, survivable Earth, placing the dominant political movement of our time against the Earth’s existential crises. Our contributors, all experts in their fields, each have assumed responsibility for a country, or two if they are related. This work entwines themes of worldwide concern with the political growth of nationalism because leaders with such a worldview are disinclined to co-operate internationally at a time when nations must find ways to solve common problems, such as the climate crisis. Inability to cooperate at this stage may doom everyone, eventually, to an overheated, stormy future plagued by droughts and deluges portending shortages of food and other essential commodities, meanwhile destroying large coastal urban areas because of rising sea levels. Future historians may look back at our time and wonder why as well as how our world succumbed to isolating nationalism at a time when time was so short for cooperative intervention which is crucial for survival of a sustainable earth. Pride in language and culture is salubrious to individuals’ sense of history and identity. Excess nationalism that prevents international co-operation on harmful worldwide maladies is quite another. As Pope Francis has pointed out: For all of our connectivity due to expansion of social media, ability to communicate can breed contempt as well as mutual trust. “For all our hyper-connectivity,” said Francis, “We witnessed a fragmentation that made it more difficult to resolve problems that affect us all” (Horowitz, 2020, A-12). The pope’s encyclical, titled “Brothers All,” also said: “The forces of myopic, extremist, resentful, and aggressive nationalism are on the rise.” The pope’s document also advocates support for migrants, as well as resistance to nationalist and tribal populism. Francis broadened his critique to the role of market capitalism, as well as nationalism has failed the peoples of the world when they need co-operation and solidarity in the face of the world-wide corona virus pandemic. Humankind needs to unite into “a new sense of the human family [Fratelli Tutti, “Brothers All”], that rejects war at all costs” (Pope, 2020, 6-A). Our journey takes us first to Russia, with the able eye and honed expertise of Richard D. Anderson, Jr. who teaches as UCLA and publishes on the subject of his chapter: “Putin, Russian identity, and Russia’s conduct at home and abroad.” Readers should find Dr. Anderson’s analysis fascinating because Vladimir Putin, the singular leader of Russian foreign and domestic policy these days (and perhaps for the rest of his life, given how malleable Russia’s Constitution has become) may be a short man physically, but has high ambitions. One of these involves restoring the old Russian (and Soviet) empire, which would involve re-subjugating a number of nations that broke off as the old order dissolved about 30 years ago. President (shall we say czar?) Putin also has international ambitions, notably by destabilizing the United States, where election meddling has become a specialty. The sight of Putin and U.S. president Donald Trump, two very rich men (Putin $70-$200 billion; Trump $2.5 billion), nuzzling in friendship would probably set Thomas Jefferson and Vladimir Lenin spinning in their graves. The road of history can take some unanticipated twists and turns. Consider Poland, from which we have an expert native analysis in chapter 2, Bartosz Hlebowicz, who is a Polish anthropologist and journalist. His piece is titled “Lawless and Unjust: How to Quickly Make Your Own Country a Puppet State Run by a Group of Hoodlums – the Hopeless Case of Poland (2015–2020).” When I visited Poland to teach and lecture twice between 2006 and 2008, most people seemed to be walking on air induced by freedom to conduct their own affairs to an unusual degree for a state usually squeezed between nationalists in Germany and Russia. What did the Poles then do in a couple of decades? Read Hlebowicz’ chapter and decide. It certainly isn’t soft-bellied liberalism. In Chapter 3, with Bruce E. Johansen, we visit China’s western provinces, the lands of Tibet as well as the Uighurs and other Muslims in the Xinjiang region, who would most assuredly resent being characterized as being possessed by the Chinese of the Han to the east. As a student of Native American history, I had never before thought of the Tibetans and Uighurs as Native peoples struggling against the Independence-minded peoples of a land that is called an adjunct of China on most of our maps. The random act of sitting next to a young woman on an Air India flight out of Hyderabad, bound for New Delhi taught me that the Tibetans had something to share with the Lakota, the Iroquois, and hundreds of other Native American states and nations in North America. Active resistance to Chinese rule lasted into the mid-nineteenth century, and continues today in a subversive manner, even in song, as I learned in 2018 when I acted as a foreign adjudicator on a Ph.D. dissertation by a Tibetan student at the University of Madras (in what is now in a city called Chennai), in southwestern India on resistance in song during Tibet’s recent history. Tibet is one of very few places on Earth where a young dissident can get shot to death for singing a song that troubles China’s Quest for Lebensraum. The situation in Xinjiang region, where close to a million Muslims have been interned in “reeducation” camps surrounded with brick walls and barbed wire. They sing, too. Come with us and hear the music. Back to Europe now, in Chapter 4, to Portugal and Spain, we find a break in the general pattern of nationalism. Portugal has been more progressive governmentally than most. Spain varies from a liberal majority to military coups, a pattern which has been exported to Latin America. A situation such as this can make use of the term “populism” problematic, because general usage in our time usually ties the word into a right-wing connotative straightjacket. “Populism” can be used to describe progressive (left-wing) insurgencies as well. José Pinto, who is native to Portugal and also researches and writes in Spanish as well as English, in “Populism in Portugal and Spain: a Real Neighbourhood?” provides insight into these historical paradoxes. Hungary shares some historical inclinations with Poland (above). Both emerged from Soviet dominance in an air of developing freedom and multicultural diversity after the Berlin Wall fell and the Soviet Union collapsed. Then, gradually at first, right wing-forces began to tighten up, stripping structures supporting popular freedom, from the courts, mass media, and other institutions. In Chapter 5, Bernard Tamas, in “From Youth Movement to Right-Liberal Wing Authoritarianism: The Rise of Fidesz and the Decline of Hungarian Democracy” puts the renewed growth of political and social repression into a context of worldwide nationalism. Tamas, an associate professor of political science at Valdosta State University, has been a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard University and a Fulbright scholar at the Central European University in Budapest, Hungary. His books include From Dissident to Party Politics: The Struggle for Democracy in Post-Communist Hungary (2007). Bear in mind that not everyone shares Orbán’s vision of what will make this nation great, again. On graffiti-covered walls in Budapest, Runes (traditional Hungarian script) has been found that read “Orbán is a motherfucker” (Mikanowski, 2019, 58). Also in Europe, in Chapter 6, Professor Ronan Le Coadic, of the University of Rennes, Rennes, France, in “Is There a Revival of French Nationalism?” Stating this title in the form of a question is quite appropriate because France’s nationalistic shift has built and ebbed several times during the last few decades. For a time after 2000, it came close to assuming the role of a substantial minority, only to ebb after that. In 2017, the candidate of the National Front reached the second round of the French presidential election. This was the second time this nationalist party reached the second round of the presidential election in the history of the Fifth Republic. In 2002, however, Jean-Marie Le Pen had only obtained 17.79% of the votes, while fifteen years later his daughter, Marine Le Pen, almost doubled her father's record, reaching 33.90% of the votes cast. Moreover, in the 2019 European elections, re-named Rassemblement National obtained the largest number of votes of all French political formations and can therefore boast of being "the leading party in France.” The brutality of oppressive nationalism may be expressed in personal relationships, such as child abuse. While Indonesia and Aotearoa [the Maoris’ name for New Zealand] hold very different ranks in the United Nations Human Development Programme assessments, where Indonesia is classified as a medium development country and Aotearoa New Zealand as a very high development country. In Chapter 7, “Domestic Violence Against Women in Indonesia and Aotearoa New Zealand: Making Sense of Differences and Similarities” co-authors, in Chapter 8, Mandy Morgan and Dr. Elli N. Hayati, from New Zealand and Indonesia respectively, found that despite their socio-economic differences, one in three women in each country experience physical or sexual intimate partner violence over their lifetime. In this chapter ther authors aim to deepen understandings of domestic violence through discussion of the socio-economic and demographic characteristics of theit countries to address domestic violence alongside studies of women’s attitudes to gender norms and experiences of intimate partner violence. One of the most surprising and upsetting scholarly journeys that a North American student may take involves Adolf Hitler’s comments on oppression of American Indians and Blacks as he imagined the construction of the Nazi state, a genesis of nationalism that is all but unknown in the United States of America, traced in this volume (Chapter 8) by co-editor Johansen. Beginning in Mein Kampf, during the 1920s, Hitler explicitly used the westward expansion of the United States across North America as a model and justification for Nazi conquest and anticipated colonization by Germans of what the Nazis called the “wild East” – the Slavic nations of Poland, the Baltic states, Ukraine, and Russia, most of which were under control of the Soviet Union. The Volga River (in Russia) was styled by Hitler as the Germans’ Mississippi, and covered wagons were readied for the German “manifest destiny” of imprisoning, eradicating, and replacing peoples the Nazis deemed inferior, all with direct references to events in North America during the previous century. At the same time, with no sense of contradiction, the Nazis partook of a long-standing German romanticism of Native Americans. One of Goebbels’ less propitious schemes was to confer honorary Aryan status on Native American tribes, in the hope that they would rise up against their oppressors. U.S. racial attitudes were “evidence [to the Nazis] that America was evolving in the right direction, despite its specious rhetoric about equality.” Ming Xie, originally from Beijing, in the People’s Republic of China, in Chapter 9, “News Coverage and Public Perceptions of the Social Credit System in China,” writes that The State Council of China in 2014 announced “that a nationwide social credit system would be established” in China. “Under this system, individuals, private companies, social organizations, and governmental agencies are assigned a score which will be calculated based on their trustworthiness and daily actions such as transaction history, professional conduct, obedience to law, corruption, tax evasion, and academic plagiarism.” The “nationalism” in this case is that of the state over the individual. China has 1.4 billion people; this system takes their measure for the purpose of state control. Once fully operational, control will be more subtle. People who are subject to it, through modern technology (most often smart phones) will prompt many people to self-censor. Orwell, modernized, might write: “Your smart phone is watching you.” Ming Xie holds two Ph.Ds, one in Public Administration from University of Nebraska at Omaha and another in Cultural Anthropology from the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Beijing, where she also worked for more than 10 years at a national think tank in the same institution. While there she summarized news from non-Chinese sources for senior members of the Chinese Communist Party. Ming is presently an assistant professor at the Department of Political Science and Criminal Justice, West Texas A&M University. In Chapter 10, analyzing native peoples and nationhood, Barbara Alice Mann, Professor of Honours at the University of Toledo, in “Divide, et Impera: The Self-Genocide Game” details ways in which European-American invaders deprive the conquered of their sense of nationhood as part of a subjugation system that amounts to genocide, rubbing out their languages and cultures -- and ultimately forcing the native peoples to assimilate on their own, for survival in a culture that is foreign to them. Mann is one of Native American Studies’ most acute critics of conquests’ contradictions, and an author who retrieves Native history with a powerful sense of voice and purpose, having authored roughly a dozen books and numerous book chapters, among many other works, who has traveled around the world lecturing and publishing on many subjects. Nalanda Roy and S. Mae Pedron in Chapter 11, “Understanding the Face of Humanity: The Rohingya Genocide.” describe one of the largest forced migrations in the history of the human race, the removal of 700,000 to 800,000 Muslims from Buddhist Myanmar to Bangladesh, which itself is already one of the most crowded and impoverished nations on Earth. With about 150 million people packed into an area the size of Nebraska and Iowa (population less than a tenth that of Bangladesh, a country that is losing land steadily to rising sea levels and erosion of the Ganges river delta. The Rohingyas’ refugee camp has been squeezed onto a gigantic, eroding, muddy slope that contains nearly no vegetation. However, Bangladesh is majority Muslim, so while the Rohingya may starve, they won’t be shot to death by marauding armies. Both authors of this exquisite (and excruciating) account teach at Georgia Southern University in Savannah, Georgia, Roy as an associate professor of International Studies and Asian politics, and Pedron as a graduate student; Roy originally hails from very eastern India, close to both Myanmar and Bangladesh, so he has special insight into the context of one of the most brutal genocides of our time, or any other. This is our case describing the problems that nationalism has and will pose for the sustainability of the Earth as our little blue-and-green orb becomes more crowded over time. The old ways, in which national arguments often end in devastating wars, are obsolete, given that the Earth and all the people, plants, and other animals that it sustains are faced with the existential threat of a climate crisis that within two centuries, more or less, will flood large parts of coastal cities, and endanger many species of plants and animals. To survive, we must listen to the Earth, and observe her travails, because they are increasingly our own.

Peru is one of the most biodiverse countries on the planet. More than 65% of the country is covered by the Amazon rainforest, and the Andes region is home to more than 70% of the world’s tropical glaciers. This abundance of natural resources also makes the country highly vulnerable to the effects of climate change.The Peruvian government therefore requires the development and implementation of action plans to adapt to the present and future impacts of climate change. At the same time, it requires the development of sound communication strategies that include collaboration with stakeholders such as the media and nongovernmental organizations. Media coverage of climate change can have important implications for policy decision making. This is especially salient in a context of low information availability where media reports play an important role in filling knowledge gaps that in turn can affect the way policies are developed.Climate change, as an environmental and social issue in Peru, is not highly politicized, as it is in countries such as the United States and Australia. There is no major debate about the reality of climate change, the scientific evidence, or the need for political action and technological and policy innovations. This approach is also reflected in the media’s coverage of the issue. Peru’s media tend to focus on climate change mostly during key policy events. Among these major events was the capital city of Lima’s hosting in 2010 of the V meeting of Latin American, Caribbean, and European Union countries, where the main topics of discussion were climate change and poverty. In addition, Lima hosted the COP20, which preceded the Paris meeting in 2015 that led to a major global agreement. The media’s coverage of these events was intense. These were the exceptions: A good proportion of Peru’s newspaper coverage comes from international news wire agencies. Coverage from those sources focuses mostly on mitigation actions, instead of adaptation, which is more relevant to vulnerable countries such as Peru. This coverage is in line with the government’s view of mitigation as a business opportunity. There is, however, a lack of studies that explore, first, the factors that affect this coverage, and, second, the way other mediums such as television or radio cover the issue.Strategic communication by governmental organizations, as well as accurate and fact-based media reporting about climate change, is necessary to better communicate the urgency and magnitude of the problem to the general public, grassroots organizations, industry, and international agencies, among others.

AbstractGender equality is an increasingly topical issue, but it has deep historical roots. The principle of gender equality found its legitimacy, even if limited to salary, in the 1957 Treaty of Rome, establishing the European Economic Community (EEC). This treaty, in Article 119, sanctioned the principle of equal pay between male and female workers. The EEC continued to protect women’s rights in the 1970s through equal opportunity policies. These policies referred, first, to the principle of equal treatment between men and women regarding education, access to work, professional promotion, and working conditions (Directive 75/117/EEC); second, to the principle of equal pay for male and female workers (Directive 76/207/EEC); and finally, enshrined the principle of equal treatment between men and women in matters of social security (Directive 79/7/EEC). Since the 1980s, several positive action programmes have been developed to support the role of women in European society. Between 1982 and 2000, four multiyear action programmes were implemented for equal opportunities. The first action programme (1982–1985) called on the Member States, through recommendations and resolutions by the Commission, to disseminate greater knowledge of the types of careers available to women, encourage the presence of women in decision-making areas, and take measures to reconcile family and working life. The second action programme (1986–1990) proposed interventions related to the employment of women in activities related to new technologies and interventions in favour of the equal distribution of professional, family, and social responsibilities (Sarcina, 2010). The third action programme (1991–1995) provided an improvement in the condition of women in society by raising public awareness of gender equality, the image of women in mass media, and the participation of women in the decision-making process at all levels in all areas of society. The fourth action programme (1996–2000) strengthened the existing regulatory framework and focused on the principle of gender mainstreaming, a strategy that involves bringing the gender dimension into all community policies, which requires all actors in the political process to adopt a gender perspective. The strategy of gender mainstreaming has several benefits: it places women and men at the heart of policies, involves both sexes in the policymaking process, leads to better governance, makes gender equality issues visible in mainstream society, and, finally, considers the diversity among women and men. Among the relevant interventions of the 1990s, it is necessary to recall the Treaty of Maastricht (1992) which guaranteed the protection of women in the Agreement on Social Policy signed by all Member States (except for Great Britain), and the Treaty of Amsterdam (1997), which formally recognised gender mainstreaming. The Treaty of Amsterdam includes gender equality among the objectives of the European Union (Article 2) and equal opportunity policies among the activities of the European Commission (Article 3). Article 13 introduces the principle of non-discrimination based on gender, race, ethnicity, religion, or handicaps. Finally, Article 141 amends Article 119 of the EEC on equal treatment between men and women in the workplace. The Charter of Fundamental Rights of the Nice Union of 2000 reaffirms the prohibition of ‘any discrimination based on any ground such as sex’ (Art. 21.1). The Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union also recognises, in Article 23, the principle of equality between women and men in all areas, including employment, work, and pay. Another important intervention of the 2000s is the Lisbon strategy, also known as the Lisbon Agenda or Lisbon Process. It is a reform programme approved in Lisbon by the heads of state and governments of the member countries of the EU. The goal of the Lisbon strategy was to make the EU the most competitive and dynamic knowledge-based economy by 2010. To achieve this goal, the strategy defines fields in which action is needed, including equal opportunities for female work. Another treaty that must be mentioned is that of Lisbon in 2009, thanks to which previous treaties, specifically the Treaty of Maastricht and the Treaty of Rome, were amended and brought together in a single document: the Treaty on European Union (TEU) and the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU). Thanks to the Lisbon Treaty, the Charter of Fundamental Rights has assumed a legally binding character (Article 6, paragraph 1 of the TEU) both for European institutions and for Member States when implementing EU law. The Treaty of Lisbon affirms the principle of equality between men and women several times in the text and places it among the values and objectives of the union (Articles 2 and 3 of the TEU). Furthermore, the Treaty, in Art. 8 of the TFEU, states that the Union’s actions are aimed at eliminating inequalities, as well as promoting equality between men and women, while Article 10 of the TFEU provides that the Union aims to ‘combat discrimination based on sex, racial or ethnic origin, religion or belief, disability, age, or sexual orientation’. Concerning the principle of gender equality in the workplace, the Treaty, in Article 153 of the TFEU, asserts that the Union pursues the objective of equality between men and women regarding labour market opportunities and treatment at work. On the other hand, Article 157 of the TFEU confirms the principle of equal pay for male and female workers ‘for equal work or work of equal value’. On these issues, through ordinary procedures, the European Parliament and the Council may adopt appropriate measures aimed at defending the principle of equal opportunities and equal treatment for men and women. The Lisbon Treaty also includes provisions relating to the fight against trafficking in human beings, particularly women and children (Article 79 of the TFEU), the problem of domestic violence against women (Article 8 of the TFEU), and the right to paid maternity leave (Article 33). Among the important documents concerning gender equality is the Roadmap (2006–2010). In 2006, the European Commission proposed the Roadmap for equality between women and men, in addition to the priorities on the agenda, the objectives, and tools necessary to achieve full gender equality. The Roadmap defines six priority areas, each of which is associated with a set of objectives and actions that makes it easier to achieve them. The priorities include equal economic independence for women and men, reconciliation of private and professional life, equal representation in the decision-making process, eradication of all forms of gender-based violence, elimination of stereotypes related to gender, and promotion of gender equality in external and development policies. The Commission took charge of the commitments included in the Roadmap, which were indirectly implemented by the Member States through the principle of subsidiarity and the competencies provided for in the Treaties (Gottardi, 2013). The 2006–2010 strategy of the European Commission is based on a dual approach: on the one hand, the integration of the gender dimension in all community policies and actions (gender mainstreaming), and on the other, the implementation of specific measures in favour of women aimed at eliminating inequalities. In 2006, the European Council approved the European Pact for Gender Equality which originated from the Roadmap. The European Pact for Gender Equality identified three macro areas of intervention: measures to close gender gaps and combat gender stereotypes in the labour market, measures to promote a better work–life balance for both women and men, and measures to strengthen governance through the integration of the gender perspective into all policies. In 2006, Directive 2006/54/EC of the European Parliament and Council regulated equal opportunities and equal treatment between male and female workers. Specifically, the Directive aims to implement the principle of equal treatment related to access to employment, professional training, and promotion; working conditions, including pay; and occupational social security approaches. On 21 September 2010, the European Commission adopted a new strategy to ensure equality between women and men (2010–2015). This new strategy is based on the experience of Roadmap (2006–2010) and resumes the priority areas identified by the Women’s Charter: equal economic independence, equal pay, equality in decision-making, the eradication of all forms of violence against women, and the promotion of gender equality and women’s empowerment beyond the union. The 2010–2015 Strategic Plan aims to improve the position of women in the labour market, but also in society, both within the EU and beyond its borders. The new strategy affirms the principle that gender equality is essential to supporting the economic growth and sustainable development of each country. In 2010, the validity of the Lisbon Strategy ended, the objectives of which were only partially achieved due to the economic crisis. To overcome this crisis, the Commission proposed a new strategy called Europe 2020, in March 2010. The main aim of this strategy is to ensure that the EU’s economic recovery is accompanied by a series of reforms that will increase growth and job creation by 2020. Specifically, Europe’s 2020 strategy must support smart, sustainable, and inclusive growth. To this end, the EU has established five goals to be achieved by 2020 and has articulated the different types of growth (smart, sustainable, and inclusive) in seven flagship initiatives. Among the latter, the initiative ‘an agenda for new skills and jobs’, in the context of inclusive growth, is the one most closely linked to gender policies and equal opportunities; in fact, it substantially aims to increase employment rates for women, young, and elderly people. The strategic plan for 2010–2015 was followed by a strategic commitment in favour of gender equality 2016–2019, which again emphasises the five priority areas defined by the previous plan. Strategic commitment, which contributes to the European Pact for Gender Equality (2011–2020), identifies the key actions necessary to achieve objectives for each priority area. In March 2020, the Commission presented a new strategic plan for equality between women and men for 2020–2025. This strategy defines a series of political objectives and key actions aimed at achieving a ‘union of equality’ by 2025. The main objectives are to put an end to gender-based violence and combat sexist stereotypes, ensure equal opportunities in the labour market and equal participation in all sectors of the economy and political life, solve the problem of the pay and pension gap, and achieve gender equality in decision-making and politics. From the summary of the regulatory framework presented, for the European Economic Community first, then for the European Community, and finally for the European Union, gender equality has always been a fundamental value. Interest in the issues of the condition of women and equal opportunities has grown over time and during the process of European integration, moving from a perspective aimed at improving the working conditions of women to a new dimension to improve the life of the woman as a person, trying to protect her not only professionally but also socially, and in general in all those areas in which gender inequality may occur. The approach is extensive and based on legislation, the integration of the gender dimension into all policies, and specific measures in favour of women. From the non-exhaustive list of the various legislative interventions, it is possible to note a continuous repetition of the same thematic priorities which highlights, on the one hand, the poor results achieved by the implementation of the policies, but, on the other hand, the Commission’s willingness to pursue the path initially taken. Among the achievements in the field of gender equality obtained by the EU, there is certainly an increase in the number of women in the labour market and the acquisition of better education and training. Despite progress, gender inequalities have persisted. Even though women surpass men in terms of educational attainment, gender gaps still exist in employment, entrepreneurship, and public life (OECD, 2017). For example, in the labour market, women continue to be overrepresented in the lowest-paid sectors and underrepresented in top positions (according to the data released in the main companies of the European Union, women represent only 8% of CEOs).

Abstract The use of antibiotics in animal agriculture is steadily increasing, especially in developing countries. The European Union and a handful of developed countries have implemented policies to scale back the use of antibiotics, recognizing its role in the global rise of antibiotic resistance. But many farmers who raise animals live in poor countries without public health regulations, or work for large corporate entities that can move their operations to places with weak regulations. To minimize the careless use of antibiotics around the world, we need multi-lateral coordination between states on some common standards for the use of antibiotics in animals.

Abstract Since the European refugee crisis 2015, the rather bureaucratic asylum and migration policy has become a highly politicised issue in ECE countries. The politicisation process started while political parties were involved with the policy. However, many studies have ignored the practice of executives’ and administrations’ action in this domain and knowledge of whether this public anti-EU rhetoric really resulted in non-compliance, therefore, remains limited. This chapter interlinks politicisation and non-compliance research in a comparative case study of Hungary and the Czech Republic. While combining findings of expert interviews, data on party manifestos and infringement procedures, it concludes that the partial politicisation did not lead to broader non-compliance in the Czech case, whereas the governmental-led politicisation in Hungary resulted in non-compliance. This difference is explained by the fact that in Hungary, the asylum-related administration, like other bureaucratic fields, has become increasingly re-politicised during the last decade.

AbstractWe have established that false information online harms the civic body, driven by the economics of emotion and the politics of emotion. What should be done about this? Multi-stakeholder solutions have been proffered by various countries’ governmental inquiries into disinformation and fake news, and by supranational bodies including the United Nations, European Union and Commonwealth. This chapter assesses seven solution areas: namely, (1) coercive and non-coercive government action, (2) cybersecurity, (3) digital intermediaries/platforms, (4) advertisers, (5) professional political persuaders and public relations, (6) media organisations and (7) education. As well as being intrinsically difficult areas to solve individually, let alone in concert, the chapter concludes that such solutions merely tinker at the edges as they do not address a fundamental incubator for false information online: namely, the business model for social media platforms built on the economics of emotion.

AbstractConstruction is one of the critical sectors in the transition to a Circular Economy due to its contribution to resource depletion, waste, and emissions. Despite its acknowledged limitations (e.g., low productivity), the construction sector has been the focus of policies and regulations to improve its sustainability and circular economy capabilities. This study focuses on circular economy policies and regulations related to the construction sector in the European Union and Portugal, identifying political and regulatory barriers and opportunities. The analysis identified a growing number of publications since 2019 and divided the policies and regulations for the Circular Economy into four areas: Resource and Waste Management, Sustainable Development Goals, Green Public Procurement, and Circular Economy. Four main barriers were identified: policies and regulations harmonization, digital innovation (within the twin transition), support to the transition (e.g. financial and educational), and clear and focused governance models. It then discusses the documents and barriers, analyzes the Portuguese strategy (Portuguese Action Plan for Circularity in the Construction Sector), and proposes a strategy to be followed by other countries. The findings provide a holistic understanding of why policies and regulations fail to support Circular Economy day-to-day practices and provide insights on how to trigger the transition.

Abstract A common vice of organizations that are good at thinking about the future is that they neglect the present. Yet every future direction has to start with changed behaviour in the present, and every serious strategy has to be as concerned with its implementation as with its logical coherence. Many governments are good at producing paper strategies, often to impress international organizations. The countries queuing up to join the European Union in the early 2000s, for example, fuelled a healthy market in consultant-written strategies which bore only a distant relationship to reality, floating in mid-air without any pillars of money, law, or structure to support them. In other cases strategy-making is a self- contained activity.

Grassroots groups in a number of European countries are building Community Wireless Networks (CWN) on small budgets. In underserved regions, CWNs are even surfacing as the principal Internet Service Providers (ISPs). These networks have identified and implemented innovative strategies for providing connectivity—encompassing aspects ranging from software development to infrastructure design and skills training. In other words, these grassroots Wi-Fi networks mobilize human, technical, and financial resources to create sustainable alternatives to telephone and cable companies. This chapter provides an understanding of both the strengths and weaknesses of these initiatives. The authors use data from action research and interviews with leaders and participants of six successful community Wi-Fi networks in Europe. The findings show that these ad hoc initiatives are forcing local incumbent ISPs to lower prices and alter terms of service agreements. In addition, these projects broaden the public sphere, create opportunities for civic engagement, and transfer knowledge among community members. The chapter suggests that community wireless networks should be fostered by governments and the European Union in order for them to function as true alternatives to conventional ISPs, particularly in the last mile. They conclude the chapter with key learned lessons and policy implications.

Abstract This chapter is intended to cover the effect that international sources of law have upon domestic law. As with European Union environmental law, international environmental agreements have radically increased in scope and influence. The UK plays an active and influential role in international environmental negotiations, the outcomes of which are reflected in stated government policy and, in some areas, legislation. Global environmental issues are now very firmly on the national political agenda, and at the forefront of public awareness about the environment in general. Climate change is recognized as the most serious environmental problem with the widest ranging effects facing both developed and developing countries, and there is now a mainstream scientific consensus about the causal link between greenhouse gas emissions and climate change. The process of securing international consensus on action to reduce emissions is enormously complex and, unsurprisingly, slow moving. As well as contributing to truly global environmental problems, nation states can affect their neighbours’ environment on a much more localized scale, with potentially devastating effects.

After the fifth enlargement of European Union in 2004 and with the expansion of European Unions borders and new neighbors, it became one of the important policies to provide security, stability and prosperity, and develop relationship between neighborhood countries. Although, enlargement process provide some opportunities to the member states of European Union, it brings about some difficulties. The differences at the life standards, environment, public health, prevention and combating organized crime between European Union and neighbor countries caused to create new policies. European Neighborhood Policy was launched in 2004, and consists of 16 countries, namely: Israel, Jordan, Moldova, Morocco, The Palestinian Authority, Tunisia, Ukraine, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Egypt, Georgia, Lebanon, Algeria, Syria, Libya and Belarus. European Union and the partner country sign the Partnership and Cooperation Agreements or Association Agreements, and then the Agreement Action Plans are mutually adapted. Action Plans include privileged relationship, mutual commitment to common values, democracy and human rights, legal and market economy principles, good governance, sustainable development, energy and transportation policies. Within the framework of European Neighborhood Policy, the main aim is to arrange the relationship between the neighbors of European Union. In this study, economic effects of the European Neighborhood Policy will be examined for the relevant countries.

In the article, the author aims to highlight some directions of action in the management of the public debt meant to minimize the risks of the outburst of a debt crisis in Romania, in the domestic and international context. The analysis shows that the evolution of Romania's total public debt in the period 2015-2019 is positive, in the sense of improved sustainability. The economic literature suggests that there are two conditions whose implementation could prevent a financial and a debt crisis from occurring (an early warning system and a regulatory scheme with "teeth"). Comparing the fiscal policy in Japan and Greece, the author presents some features for minimizing the risks of a debt crisis and shows that the rules of fiscal policy change fundamentally when a country becomes a member of a monetary union. Starting from the main economic problems of Romania and from the experience of the public debt crises in some countries of the European Union, there are made proposals for actions aimed at leading to the minimization of the risks of a debt crisis in Romania. The methodology used consists in comparative and descriptive analyses, drawing of conclusions and literature review.

In the last ten years, public and government perceptions of waste-to-energy have changed considerably. Most people who bothered to visit waste management facilities recognize that landfilling can only be replaced by a combination of recycling and thermal treatment with energy recovery. During the same period, the Earth Engineering Center (EEC) of Columbia University research and public information programs have concentrated on advancing all means of sustainable waste management in the U.S. and abroad. The results of EEC research are exemplified in the graphs of the Hierarchy of Waste Management and the Ladder of Sustainable Waste Management of nations; in this paper, the latter has also been used to compare the waste management status of the fifty states of the Union. This paper also describes how the European Union has directed that thermally efficient treatment of MSW is equivalent to recycling. The rapid growth of WTE in this century is exemplified by the hundreds of new WTE plants that have been built or are under construction, most with, government assistance as in the case of other essential infrastucture. The need for concerted action by concerned scientists and engineers around the world has led to the formation of the Global WTERT Council. By now there are sister organizations of EEC and WTERT in Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, Greece (SYNERGIA) and Japan. Others are being formed in other countries.

The environmental management system should be considered as part of the overall management system. This involves looking at the organizational structure, planning activities, responsibilities, practices, procedures, processes and resources for developing, implementing, achieving, reviewing and maintaining environmental policy. Basic principles and requirements of the environmental management system are aimed at identifying, researching, controlling and reviewing the factors influencing the environment, which allow businesses and public organizations to formulate policies and objectives aimed at protection of the environment. By introducing an environmental management system, organizations simultaneously declare, declare their commitment and guarantee to society as a whole that they are genuinely committed to solving environmental problems. European environmental policy is based on the principle of precautionary measures, preventive action and the elimination of pollution at source, as well as on the principle of "polluter pays". The European Union has the power to take action on all matters of environmental policy such as air and water pollution, waste management and climate change. Although some powers are limited as a result of the principle of subsidiarity and the requirement for unanimous agreement in the Council on fiscal issues, issues related to urban and spatial planning, land use, quantitative management of water resources, choice of energy sources and the structure of energy supply. The purpose of this article is to present specific features of environmental management policy and its impact on regional development in developing countries.

This guide presents a joint effort of projects funded under the European Research Area for Climate Services (ERA4CS) (http://www.jpi-climate.eu/ERA4CS), a co- funded action initiated by JPI Climate with co-funding by the European Union (Grant 690462), 15 national public Research Funding Organisations (RFOs), and 30 Research Performing Organisations (RPOs) from 18 European countries. This guide sets out to increase the understanding of different pathways, methods, and approaches to improve knowledge co-production of climate services with users as a value-added activity of the ERA4CS Programme. Reflecting on the experiences of 16 of the 26 projects funded under ERA4CS, this guide aims to define and recommend good practices for transdisciplinary knowledge co-production of climate services to researchers, users, funding agencies, and private sector service providers. Drawing on responses from ERA4CS project teams to a questionnaire and interviews, this guide maps the diversity of methods for stakeholder identification, involvement, and engagement. It also conducts an analysis of methods, tools, and mechanisms for engagement as well as evaluation of co-production processes. This guide presents and discusses good practice examples based on the review of the ERA4CS projects, identifying enablers and barriers for key elements in climate service co-production processes. These were: namely (i) Forms of Engagement; (ii) Entry Points for Engagement; and, (iii) Intensity of Involvement. It further outlines key ingredients to enhance the quality of co-producing climate services with users and stakeholders. Based on the analysis of the lessons learned from ERA4CS projects, as well as a review of key concepts in the recent literature on climate service co-production, we provide a set of recommendations for researchers, users, funders and private sector providers of climate services.

The purpose of this report is to compare the risk communication strategies and public health mitigation measures implemented by Germany, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom (UK) in 2020 in response to the COVID-19 pandemic based on publicly available documents. The report compares the country responses both in relation to one another and to the recommendations and guidance of the World Health Organization where available. The comparative report is an output of Work Package 1 from the research project PAN-FIGHT (Fighting pandemics with enhanced risk communication: Messages, compliance and vulnerability during the COVID-19 outbreak), which is financially supported by the Norwegian Research Council's extraordinary programme for corona research. PAN-FIGHT adopts a comparative approach which follows a “most different systems” variation as a logic of comparison guiding the research (Przeworski & Teune, 1970). The countries in this study include two EU member States (Sweden, Germany), one which was engaged in an exit process from the EU membership (the UK), and two non-European Union states, but both members of the European Free Trade Association (EFTA): Norway and Switzerland. Furthermore, Germany and Switzerland govern by the Continental European Federal administrative model, with a relatively weak central bureaucracy and strong subnational, decentralised institutions. Norway and Sweden adhere to the Scandinavian model—a unitary but fairly decentralised system with power bestowed to the local authorities. The United Kingdom applies the Anglo-Saxon model, characterized by New Public Management (NPM) and decentralised managerial practices (Einhorn & Logue, 2003; Kuhlmann & Wollmann, 2014; Petridou et al., 2019). In total, PAN-FIGHT is comprised of 5 Work Packages (WPs), which are research-, recommendation-, and practice-oriented. The WPs seek to respond to the following research questions and accomplish the following: WP1: What are the characteristics of governmental and public health authorities’ risk communication strategies in five European countries, both in comparison to each other and in relation to the official strategies proposed by WHO? WP2: To what extent and how does the general public’s understanding, induced by national risk communication, vary across five countries, in relation to factors such as social capital, age, gender, socio-economic status and household composition? WP3: Based on data generated in WP1 and WP2, what is the significance of being male or female in terms of individual susceptibility to risk communication and subsequent vulnerability during the COVID-19 outbreak? WP4: Based on insight and knowledge generated in WPs 1 and 2, what recommendations can we offer national and local governments and health institutions on enhancing their risk communication strategies to curb pandemic outbreaks? WP5: Enhance health risk communication strategies across five European countries based upon the knowledge and recommendations generated by WPs 1-4. Pre-pandemic preparedness characteristics All five countries had pandemic plans developed prior to 2020, which generally were specific to influenza pandemics but not to coronaviruses. All plans had been updated following the H1N1 pandemic (2009-2010). During the SARS (2003) and MERS (2012) outbreaks, both of which are coronaviruses, all five countries experienced few cases, with notably smaller impacts than the H1N1 epidemic (2009-2010). The UK had conducted several exercises (Exercise Cygnet in 2016, Exercise Cygnus in 2016, and Exercise Iris in 2018) to check their preparedness plans; the reports from these exercises concluded that there were gaps in preparedness for epidemic outbreaks. Germany also simulated an influenza pandemic exercise in 2007 called LÜKEX 07, to train cross-state and cross-department crisis management (Bundesanstalt Technisches Hilfswerk, 2007). In 2017 within the context of the G20, Germany ran a health emergency simulation exercise with WHO and World Bank representatives to prepare for potential future pandemics (Federal Ministry of Health et al., 2017). Prior to COVID-19, only the UK had expert groups, notably the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE), that was tasked with providing advice during emergencies. It had been used in previous emergency events (not exclusively limited to health). In contrast, none of the other countries had a similar expert advisory group in place prior to the pandemic. COVID-19 waves in 2020 All five countries experienced two waves of infection in 2020. The first wave occurred during the first half of the year and peaked after March 2020. The second wave arrived during the final quarter. Norway consistently had the lowest number of SARS-CoV-2 infections per million. Germany’s counts were neither the lowest nor the highest. Sweden, Switzerland and the UK alternated in having the highest numbers per million throughout 2020. Implementation of measures to control the spread of infection In Germany, Switzerland and the UK, health policy is the responsibility of regional states, (Länders, cantons and nations, respectively). However, there was a strong initial centralized response in all five countries to mitigate the spread of infection. Later on, country responses varied in the degree to which they were centralized or decentralized. Risk communication In all countries, a large variety of communication channels were used (press briefings, websites, social media, interviews). Digital communication channels were used extensively. Artificial intelligence was used, for example chatbots and decision support systems. Dashboards were used to provide access to and communicate data.

In July 2021, the Rhine-Meuse region straddling Belgium, Germany and the Netherlands was affected by devastating floods that have led to the loss of more than 240 lives and damage worth billions of Euros. The event was closely watched by regional agencies that had to organize response and recovery, and also received noticeable global attention. Diverse sets of responses and reflections accumulated among researchers, local and regional governments, local and international media, development organizations, public offices and citizen groups, wherein links to climate change and gaps in our preparedness for unexpected, extreme events were a common element of the discourse. In response to the floods, and in recognition of the cross-border effects of climate change, the United Nations University institutes in Belgium (UNU-CRIS), Germany (UNU-EHS) and the Netherlands (UNU-MERIT) have launched the “UNU Climate Resilience Initiative” with the aim to share knowledge, shape policy and drive action – and ultimately shift the focus from risk to proactive adaptation, innovation and transformation. Within the context of this initiative, researchers from the three institutes have conducted research in the flood affected areas and organized the two-day “Flood Knowledge Summit 2022: From Risks to Resilience”, which took place from 7 to 8 July 2022 in Maastricht, the Netherlands. Complementing existing national initiatives and efforts in the three countries, the event aimed to connect different actors – including affected citizens, first responders, authorities, researchers and civil society – from the region, the European Union (EU) and the Global South to share experiences, engage in dialogue and facilitate learning regarding how to strengthen climate resilience for all. This summit served to map various efforts to understand the data, information, governance and knowledge gaps at national, subnational and regional levels in order to address growing risks of climate change, including how to adapt to not only climate-induced extreme events like floods but also other hazard events, and created a regional momentum to support multidimensional efforts towards building resilience. Drawing on our research and outcomes of the Flood Knowledge Summit 2022, the UNU Climate Resilience Initiative has identified five key areas in which further research and action is needed to tackle climate risks and facilitate pathways towards climate resilience.