This report contains the main findings and recommendations of a major study carried out by CEPS on the European Commission’s external communication activities, tools and structures. The objective of the study was to provide analytical insight and research-based recommendations to the Screening Working Group of the European Commission concerned with the institution’s public communications. The overall questions addressed included:

This report aims to contribute to the debate on how the EU could most efficiently respond to the challenges posed and the deficiencies revealed by the financial crisis in the area of retail credit. It is based in part on discussions that took place within the CEPS-ECRI Task Force on A New Retail Credit Regime for Europe – Setting the Right Priorities, which met between May 2010 and January 2011. Given the policy directions, the discussions focused largely on the largest component of retail credit, mortgages.

Turkey can look forward to important opportunities with respect to the innovative products and services that the health sector can generate. With a growing call for health services due to the size of its population and expanding insurance coverage, its geographical proximity to world markets and technological infrastructure, Turkey is a significant source of demand for innovative products and services from the health sector.

With the EU Emissions Trading System (ETS) now entering in its seventh year of operation, this report takes stock of the largest multi-sector greenhouse gas trading scheme in the world. It reviews the experiences of the pilot phase from 2005-07, assesses the adjustments introduced in the second phase (2008-12) and looks ahead to the radical changes that will come into effect in the third phase starting in 2013. The assessment is based on a literature review of recently published ex-post analyses and ex-ante studies and draws as well on our own calculations.

Sectoral approaches can be considered part of a transition towards a global carbon market. Providing the potentially strongest link between the EU emissions trading scheme (EU ETS) and sectoral approaches, sectoral benchmarks can be used for setting caps, free allocation, or can become a catalyst for linking carbon markets. There would be at least three ways to strengthen the effectiveness of sectoral approaches through the choice of performance, metrics, reporting and compliance.

The findings of this comprehensive study undertaken by CEPS for the Directorate-General for Employment, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities are intended to contribute to the identification of reforms and policy measures that are potentially the most significant for Europe to ensure growth and jobs in the medium term.

This paper argues that the European Commission's Directorate General for Competition, under its new Competition Commissioner Joaquin Almunia, is now facing acute problems in its investigation and prosecution of cartels, which stem from the successful cartel busting era of Commissioner Kroes. The core argument is that the Commission's procedures emerged at a time when the aim was to consult extensively on the development of competition law, and not to prosecute and fine delinquent business entities.

According to the literature covering the impact of educational inclusion or exclusion of immigrants and ethnic minorities on their political participation, it appears that most authors take for granted that having been educated facilitates actions understood to fall within this scope. This report reveals that this stance is largely undermined, however, by the fact that the levels of opportunity for participation by these groups are legally limited.

This paper was prepared as part of the INCLUD-ED Project, an Integrated Project of the 6th Framework Programme of the European Commission. Integrated Projects bring together the critical mass of activities and resources needed to achieve ambitious clearly defined scientific objectives and are expected to have a structuring effect on the fabric of European research. INCLUD-ED was the only project focused on compulsory education which was selected in the last Calls for Proposals of the 6th Framework Programme.

Die Auswirkungen der Liberalisierung im Rahmen des ATC (Agreement on Textiles and Clothing) auf die deutsche Textilwirtschaft und die von ihr beschäftigten Arbeitnehmer/innen unter besonderer Berücksichtigung des Beitritts Chinas zur WTO Studie im Auftrag von: Bundesministerium für Wirtschaft und Technologie, Gesamtverband der Textilindustrie in der Bundesrepublik Deutschland, Industrievereinigung Chemiefaser e.V., IG Metall

In the past few years, Turkey has launched very important and ambitious reforms in the information society and media sector. Even more substantial changes are expected in 2009, after the new e-communications law has been approved at the end of 2008. Apart from the 49 expected pieces of secondary legislation foreseen to implement the new Law No 5809, Turkey has also planned important steps in the domain of spectrum policy, with licenses for WiMAX soon to be awarded.

This Background Briefing is one in a set of four dealing, respectively, with immigration, asylum, borders and data protection. They are produced as part of a CEPS project on “Informing the Immigration Debate: Preparing for the European Parliament Elections 4-7 June” supported by the Barrow Cadbury Trust, an independent charitable foundation that funds and promotes social justice initiatives (for more information, see http://www.bctrust.org.uk).

This Background Briefing is one in a set of four dealing, respectively, with immigration, asylum, borders and data protection. They are produced as part of a CEPS project on “Informing the Immigration Debate: Preparing for the European Parliament Elections 4-7 June” supported by the Barrow Cadbury Trust, an independent charitable foundation that funds and promotes social justice initiatives (for more information, see http://www.bctrust.org.uk).

This report provides a state of the art of the main interdisciplinary academic discussions, EU acts and European Court of Justice (ECJ) case law surrounding issues related to citizenship, migration and integration. The report was finalised in mid-2008 and has provided the basis upon which the work conducted by the Justice and Home Affairs Section at CEPS in the framework of the ENACT research project funded by DG Research of the European Commission has been developed.