scholarly journals DIGITAL INJECTION OF UNCERTAINTY: THE INFLUENCE OF SOCIAL MEDIA ON VACCINATION HESITANCY IN THE EUROPEAN UNION

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sidorina Ekaterina ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
European Union ◽  
European Commission ◽  
Vaccination Coverage ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Vaccine Preventable Diseases ◽  
Prior Record ◽  
Social Media Presence ◽  
Coverage Rates ◽  
Vaccination Hesitancy

The influence of social media on vaccine hesitant users is concerning, as it most often negatively affects the decision about vaccination of oneself and their children, encourages the spread of misinformation and leads to the endangerment of the population. Giving all the potential that the online sphere obtains, this work is meant to bring awareness of the issues caused by social media regarding anti-vaccination and encourage closer monitoring of such content in order to battle hesitancy. The territory of interest for this research is European Union, as despite its unsullied prior record, the most recent data has been showing outbreaks of vaccine-preventable diseases due to insufficient vaccination coverage rates. (European Commission, 2016) Analyzing European vaccination data and patterns, EU-focused academic researches and literature and social media presence of the “anti-vax” campaigns, the work brings up the prospects and suggestions for the possible solutions to the problem.

scholarly journals Skills building seminar: How to improve vaccination coverage in the European Union?

2019 ◽  
Vol 29 (Supplement_4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
European Commission ◽  
Health Systems ◽  
Vaccination Coverage ◽  
Vaccine Hesitancy ◽  
Policy Options ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Eu Countries ◽  
Eu Member States ◽  
The Eu

Abstract In recent years, the European Union (EU) has been facing several serious outbreaks of vaccine-preventable diseases, including measles. Vaccination coverage rates for the first dose of the vaccine against measles vary from 85% in Italy to 99% in Luxembourg and Hungary, with the average for the EU (93.6%) falling below what is required to ensure herd immunity. Similar variations can be seen for other vaccinations, including influenza immunization programmes targeting older adults who are at greater risk of severe complications. Of particular concern is that in a number of EU countries anti-vaccine groups, aided by social and mainstream media, and sometimes populist politicians, are gaining traction and have started to influence public and health worker attitudes towards the safety and effectiveness of vaccinations. The EU has started to respond to these developments in a number of ways. In his 2017 State of the Union address, Jean-Claude Juncker, the President of the European Commission, has called for action to increase vaccination coverage and to ensure that everyone in the EU has access to vaccines. This was followed by a number of new policy and research activities initiated by the European Commission. The workshop provides an overview of some of these activities. It starts with an introductory presentation on recent initiatives of the European Commission to support national vaccination efforts. This is followed by a presentation on the work of the Expert Panel on effective ways of investing in Health and their report on vaccination programmes and health systems in EU countries. A third presentation presents EU-funded research on vaccine hesitancy in EU member states, based on the largest ever study on attitudes to vaccines and vaccination in the EU. A final presentation explores a study undertaken for the European Commission by the European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies on the organization and delivery of vaccination programmes in EU member states, based on detailed country fiches. The workshop will provide opportunity for the audience to comment on and discuss presentations and to consider current policy options in Europe to address vaccine hesitancy and improve vaccination coverage through health system interventions. It will be of interest to public health researchers, practitioners and policy-makers from across Europe. Key messages The workshop provides a forum for discussing European initiatives to overcome vaccine hesitancy and improve vaccination coverage. It explores policy options at the European and national level.

scholarly journals Vaccination coverage in the European Union

2019 ◽  
Vol 29 (Supplement_4) ◽  
Author(s):  
L Pastore Celentano
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
Vaccination Coverage ◽  
International Collaboration ◽  
Herd Immunity ◽  
Evidence Based ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Member States ◽  
Working Groups ◽  
Coverage Rates ◽  
The Eu

Abstract Background Vaccination coverage rates in the European Union (EU) vary considerably across countries and there has been a decline for some diseases in some countries in recent years. Methods The ECDC supports member states in their vaccination programmes through a range of activities, including identification of threats, surveillance, international collaboration, scientific working groups, assessments of national vaccination programmes, and communication activities. Results For the first dose of the vaccine against measles, coverage ranges from 85% in Italy to 99% in Luxembourg and Hungary, with the average for the EU (93.6%) falling below what is required to ensure herd immunity. Uptake of the second dose against measles reached the target of 95% in only four countries in 2017, compared to 14 in 2007. Conclusions Despite the fact that there are safe and efficient vaccines, there seems to be a crisis of confidence in them. Each EU citizen should receive correct evidence-based information on vaccines and have the same immunisation opportunities.

Austrian Veto against European Union Membership Negotiations with Turkey

2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 103-122
Author(s):  
Ewa Kaczan-Winiarska
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
European Commission ◽  
Security Policy ◽  
Negotiation Process ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Strategic Partner ◽  
Key Factor ◽  
European Standards ◽  
The Eu

The Austrian government is extremely sceptical about the accession negotiations which are conducted by the European Commission on behalf of the European Union with Turkey and calls for the negotiation process to end. Serious reservations of Vienna have been raised by the current political situation in Turkey under the rule of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, as well as by the standards of democracy in Turkey, which differ greatly from European standards. Serious deficiencies in rule of law, freedom of speech and independence of the judiciary, confirmed in the latest European Commission report on Turkey, do not justify, from Vienna’s point of view, the continuation of talks with Ankara on EU membership. In fact, Austria’s scepticism about the European perspective for Turkey has a longer tradition. This was marked previously in 2005 when the accession negotiations began. Until now, Austria’s position has not had enough clout within the European arena. Pragmatic cooperation with Turkey as a strategic partner of the EU, both in the context of the migration crisis and security policy, proved to be a key factor. The question is whether Austria, which took over the EU presidency from 1.7.2018, will be able to more strongly accentuate its reservations about Turkey and even build an alliance of Member States strong enough to block Turkey’s accession process.

Legal Maxims: Summaries and Extracts from Selected Case Law

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sébastien Brisard ◽  
Guglielmo Cantillo ◽  
Ramona Grimberger ◽  
Victoria Hanley-Emilsson ◽  
Rebeka Hevesi ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
European Commission ◽  
Vice President ◽  
Case Law ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Grand Chamber

Council of the European Union v. European Commission, Case C-409/13, Grand Chamber, Judgment, 14 April 2015European Commission v. Vanbreda Risk & Benefits, Case C‑35/15 P(R), Order of the Vice-President of the Court, 23 April 2015Geoffrey Léger v. Ministre des Affaires sociales, de la Santé et des Droits des femmes, Établissement français du sang...

Epilogue

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert E. Goodin ◽  
Kai Spiekermann
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
European Union ◽  
Majority Rule ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Donald Trump ◽  
Epistemic Democracy ◽  
The Core ◽  
Echo Chambers ◽  
Filter Bubbles

This chapter reflects on the election of Donald Trump and the vote of the British electorate in favour of ‘Brexit’ from the European Union. While we refrain from judging the outcomes of these votes, we do discuss concerns pertaining to the lack of truthfulness in both campaigns. After rehearsing the lies on which the Trump and Brexit campaigns were based, we consider different explanations as to why these campaigns were nevertheless successful, and where this leaves the argument for epistemic democracy. Particularly worrisome are tendencies towards ‘epistemic insouciance’, ‘epistemic malevolence’, and ‘epistemic agnosticism’. We also consider the problematic influence of social media in terms of echo chambers and filter bubbles. The core argument in favour of epistemic democracy is that the pooling of votes by majority rule has epistemically beneficial properties, assuming certain conditions. If these assumptions are not met, or are systematically corrupted, then epistemic democracy is under threat.

scholarly journals Sustainability in the European Union: Analyzing the Discourse of the European Green Deal

2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 80
Author(s):  
Eva Eckert ◽  
Oleksandra Kovalevska
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
European Commission ◽  
Critical Discourse Analysis ◽  
Political Institutions ◽  
Main Question ◽  
The European Union ◽  
International Media ◽  
Institutional Power ◽  
The One ◽  
The Eu

In the European Union, the concern for sustainability has been legitimized by its politically and ecologically motivated discourse disseminated through recent policies of the European Commission and the local as well as international media. In the article, we question the very meaning of sustainability and examine the European Green Deal, the major political document issued by the EC in 2019. The main question pursued in the study is whether expectations verbalized in the Green Deal’s plans, programs, strategies, and developments hold up to the scrutiny of critical discourse analysis. We compare the Green Deal’s treatment of sustainability to how sustainability is presented in environmental and social science scholarship and point out that research, on the one hand, and the politically motivated discourse, on the other, do not correlate and often actually contradict each other. We conclude that sustainability discourse and its keywords, lexicon, and phraseology have become a channel through which political institutions in the EU such as the European Commission sideline crucial environmental issues and endorse their own presence. The Green Deal discourse shapes political and institutional power of the Commission and the EU.

scholarly journals A Review of Bioplastics and Their Adoption in the Circular Economy

Polymers ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (8) ◽  
pp. 1229
Author(s):  
Alberto Di Bartolo ◽  
Giulia Infurna ◽  
Nadka Tzankova Dintcheva
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
Life Cycle Assessment ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
European Commission ◽  
Circular Economy ◽  
Environmental Risks ◽  
Plastic Waste ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Sustainable Society ◽  
Net Zero

The European Union is working towards the 2050 net-zero emissions goal and tackling the ever-growing environmental and sustainability crisis by implementing the European Green Deal. The shift towards a more sustainable society is intertwined with the production, use, and disposal of plastic in the European economy. Emissions generated by plastic production, plastic waste, littering and leakage in nature, insufficient recycling, are some of the issues addressed by the European Commission. Adoption of bioplastics–plastics that are biodegradable, bio-based, or both–is under assessment as one way to decouple society from the use of fossil resources, and to mitigate specific environmental risks related to plastic waste. In this work, we aim at reviewing the field of bioplastics, including standards and life cycle assessment studies, and discuss some of the challenges that can be currently identified with the adoption of these materials.

scholarly journals Joint bodies in the European Union's international agreements: Delegating powers to the European Commission in EU external relations

2021 ◽  
pp. 146511652110273
Author(s):  
Markus Gastinger ◽  
Andreas Dür
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
European Commission ◽  
Empirical Support ◽  
International Agreements ◽  
Principal Agent ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Original Dataset ◽  
Voting Rule ◽  
External Relations ◽  
Set Up

In many international agreements, the European Union sets up joint bodies such as ‘association councils’ or ‘joint committees’. These institutions bring together European Union and third-country officials for agreement implementation. To date, we know surprisingly little about how much discretion the European Commission enjoys in them. Drawing on a principal–agent framework, we hypothesise that the complexity of agreements, the voting rule, conflict within the Council, and agency losses can explain Commission discretion in these institutions. Drawing on an original dataset covering nearly 300 such joint bodies set up by the European Union since 1992, we find robust empirical support for all expectations except for the agency loss thesis. Our findings suggest that the European Commission is the primary actor in the implementation of many of the European Union's international agreements, allowing it to influence EU external relations beyond what is currently acknowledged in the literature.

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