The Discursive double game of EMU reform: the clash of titans between French White Knight and German Iron Lady. Paper presented at the 9th Biennial Conference European Community Studies Association–Canada (ECSA-C), Ottawa, Ontario, April 27-28, 2012

From the Introduction. In the aftermath of the EU’s enlargement towards Central and Eastern Europe, many scholars and observers of European integration were proclaiming that the French-German “engine” of Europe had come to an end. The political legitimacy of French-German initiatives was contested by coalitions of smaller member states and the ‘new Europe’ was calling for new leadership dynamics. However, the experience of the Eurozone debt crisis provided dramatic evidence that no alternative to the Franco-German partnership has yet to emerge in the enlarged EU. In a time of existential crisis, Franco-German initiatives appear to have remained the basic dynamic of integration. However, unlike in the past, agreements on steps forward have proven to be particularly difficult. This is largely due to these countries’ contrasting political economic policy ideas, cultures, and practices....the paper analyses the ideational ‘frames’ of the two leaders while tracing their discursive interactions against changing background conditions since the European debt crisis was triggered by Greece in October 2009 until the last measures taken in 2012 before the French Presidential elections. The empirical analysis is based on a systematic corpus of press conferences and media interviews by Nicolas Sarkozy and Angela Merkel after European summits. It is complemented by a number of press interviews including some given by their respective Finance Ministers) and important speeches in that same period of time

Less and more Europe: the EU at a crossroads between federalism and political disintegration

One of the most common arguments during the Eurozone crisis was that states required greater levels of political integration to help stabilise their economies. However, as Arthur Borriello and Amandine Crespy write, the crisis also witnessed a shift toward more intergovernmental forms of decision-making centred on the European Council. They note that the EU is now caught between competing narratives which simultaneously advocate ‘less Europe’ and ‘more Europe’, and that with the refugee crisis generating similar paradoxical positions, it is time for national governments to articulate a consistent vision for the future of the integration process

CETA has laid bare the need to reconfigure sovereignty in the EU

CETA, the EU’s proposed free trade agreement with Canada, is currently being held up by opposition within the Belgian region of Wallonia, which could ultimately derail the agreement entirely if a solution cannot be reached. Amandine Crespy writes that the CETA case illustrates the problem in balancing free trade with sovereignty and democracy in Europe

A Nuyorican Absurdist: Pedro Pietri and His Plays of Happy Subversion

Jerzy Grotowski once wrote of the visionary Antonin Artaud, “He wasn’t entirely himself;” the same might be said of the late poet Pedro Pietri—who wasn’t entirely himself since he began writing plays. Pietri’s plays, having been produced in New York since the late sixties, are an example of the wave of Nuyorican theatre in the US prominent at that time— characterized by experimentation in form and the merging of social issues within that form. While others have explored Pietri’s work in tandem with his poetry, the phenomenological approach taken in this essay focuses on his plays and brackets off other concerns, getting at the “thingness” and texture of Pietri’s bizarre farcical dramaturgy, particularly within the context of how it compares to European absurdist technique

Resistance to Policy Change in the European Union. An actor-centred analytical framework

This article addresses the perspectives and limits of the ever expanding research agenda of various forms of (active or passive) resistance to EU policy change. While taking stock of existing research on Euroscepticism, social movements, Europeanisation and non-compliance, the paper seeks to go beyond their limitations and proposes a broader analytical framework. This framework shall serve to study resistance to policy change in the EU in three constitutive dimensions: its causes, its forms and its effects. We formulate four hypotheses: 1/ a “positive-negative integration hypothesis” analysing the nature of change as a motivation for agents to resist; 2/ a “disposition hypothesis” relating to the perception and framing of change; 3/ an “arena shifting hypothesis” examining the institutional possibilities for resisting at the national or EU political arena; and 4/ a twofold “concentration hypothesis” looking at the extent to which the concentration of resistance in one or few Member States is likely to affect further integration under different decision making regimes (unanimity or qualified majority)

Rassembler pour réformer ? Les PRES : de la mutualisation au portage de projets

L'analyse de cette réforme permet de revenir sur les conditions qui marquent la création de ces nouvelles structures et celles de leur insertion dans un environnement déjà très largement saturé en institutions. L'analyse des PRES permet ainsi d'entrevoir, à partir d'un cas empirique précis, les conditions d'application d'une réforme censée restructurer le pilotage de l'enseignement supérieur et de la recherche, conditions partiellement symptomatiques des "nouvelles"' formes d'intervention de l'Etat en France (...)

When trade unions succeed: cases of blocked liberalisation in the common market

Despite the generally accepted weakness of trade unions at the European Union level, an analysis of two high profile cases – the Services Directive and the Port Directive – shows that trade unions are able to mobilise effectively at the European level and, within constellations of actors, crucially impact EU decision making. In contrast to common claims that a lack of access to EU institutions makes such groups powerless, it is argued here that the exclusion of large opposing societal groups from consultations is neither a quick nor a sure fire recipe for dismantling opposition. On the contrary, it politicises the process and may lead to opposing groups mobilising in more contentious ways

Stabilization of Inverse Miniemulsions by Silyl-Protected Homopolymers

Inverse (water-in-oil) miniemulsions are an important method to encapsulate hydrophilic payloads such as oligonucleotides or peptides. However, the stabilization of inverse miniemulsions usually requires block copolymers that are difficult to synthesize and/or cannot be easily removed after transfer from a hydrophobic continuous phase to an aqueous continuous phase. We describe here a new strategy for the synthesis of a surfactant for inverse miniemulsions by radical addition–fragmentation chain transfer (RAFT) polymerization, which consists in a homopolymer with triisopropylsilyl protecting groups. The protecting groups ensure the efficient stabilization of the inverse (water-in-oil, w/o) miniemulsions. Nanocapsules can be formed and the protecting group can be subsequently cleaved for the re-dispersion of nanocapsules in an aqueous medium with a minimal amount of additional surfactant

DNA Oxidation Photoinduced by Norharmane Rhenium(I) Polypyridyl Complexes: Effect of the Bidentate N,N′-Ligands on the Damage Profile

ReI-polypyridyl complexes have interesting and distinctive photochemical and photosensitizing properties. This work describes the capability to induce (or photoinduce) DNA damage of three ReI-complexes with a naturally occurring alkaloid called norharmane (nHo) as ligand: [Re(CO)3(nHo)(L)]CF3SO3 where L=2,2′-bipyridine (ReBpy), phenanthroline (RePhen) or dipyrido[3,2-a:2′,3′-c]phenazine (ReDppz). The interaction of the complexes with DNA was investigated by steady-state and time-resolved spectroscopy. Data show that the mode and strength of interaction depend on the chemical structure of the bidentate ligand. The complexes show a major static contribution to the overall interaction, giving rise to the formation of noncovalent adducts with DNA, and the particular trend observed was RePhen>ReDppz>ReBpy. Photo-oxidation at the purine bases represents the major DNA damaging mechanism. RePhen also induces single-strand breaks in a yield similar to that of base damage, suggesting an additional photosensitizing pathway. We also performed the Ames test to evaluate the cytotoxic and mutagenic properties of both non-irradiated and photoexcited complexes. RePhen, but not the other complexes, turned out to be both toxic and phototoxic for the bacteria.Fil: Maisuls, Iván. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - La Plata. Instituto de Investigaciones Fisicoquímicas Teóricas y Aplicadas. Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas. Instituto de Investigaciones Fisicoquímicas Teóricas y Aplicadas; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - La Plata. Instituto de Investigaciones Biotecnológicas. Instituto de Investigaciones Biotecnológicas "Dr. Raúl Alfonsín" (sede Chascomús). Universidad Nacional de San Martín. Instituto de Investigaciones Biotecnológicas. Instituto de Investigaciones Biotecnológicas "Dr. Raúl Alfonsín" (sede Chascomús); ArgentinaFil: Cabrerizo, Franco Martín. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - La Plata. Instituto de Investigaciones Biotecnológicas. Instituto de Investigaciones Biotecnológicas "Dr. Raúl Alfonsín" (sede Chascomús). Universidad Nacional de San Martín. Instituto de Investigaciones Biotecnológicas. Instituto de Investigaciones Biotecnológicas "Dr. Raúl Alfonsín" (sede Chascomús); ArgentinaFil: David Gara, Pedro Maximiliano. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - La Plata. Centro de Investigaciones Ópticas. Provincia de Buenos Aires. Gobernación. Comisión de Investigaciones Científicas. Centro de Investigaciones Ópticas. Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Centro de Investigaciones Ópticas; ArgentinaFil: Epe, Bernd. Johannes Gutenberg Universitat Mainz; AlemaniaFil: Ruiz, Gustavo Teodosio. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - La Plata. Instituto de Investigaciones Fisicoquímicas Teóricas y Aplicadas. Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas. Instituto de Investigaciones Fisicoquímicas Teóricas y Aplicadas; Argentin