'Brexit put us in the Fridge, Covid in the Freezer': The Impact of Covid-19 and Brexit on UK Freelance Dance Artists

This article investigates how Covid-19 and Brexit have impacted the practices, finances and wellbeing of UK dance professionals, drawing on first-hand data collected in early 2021 from interviews, questionnaires and a panel discussion. The testimonies of freelance practitioners from different backgrounds, as well as key stakeholders from national institutions and organisations employing or otherwise interacting with freelancers, present bottom-up insights from the scene. Our research project more specifically explored the ramifications of the pandemic and Brexit, and the impact of these crises on the diversity of the UK dance scene (broadly construed). The voices and findings presented are framed by a discussion of the economic and political infrastructure of the so-called 'creative industries' in the country, with particular attention to the freelance creative labour model, risk and precarity. The article concludes by proposing a politics of small resistive steps which might help to mitigate these challenges, working from within the dance ecosystem. [ FROM AUTHOR] Copyright of Dance Research is the property of Edinburgh University Press and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full . (Copyright applies to all s.)

COVID-19 and the Political Economy of the European Union: New Crisis, Old Concerns

The COVID-19 crisis has clearly hit the European Union (EU) hard, and at its very heart: member states' governments have struggled to prepare and respond, while the whole regional block has lacked the coordinated action that would be expected of a cohesive, established and ambitious supra-governmental organisation. The present article investigates the impact of the pandemic on the political economy of the EU, reviewing some estimates of both the scope and depth of an economic downturn that bears a close resemblance the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis. This timely analysis focuses, in particular, on Italy and Spain: flailing economies already registering stuttering growth and mounting public debt when the Coronavirus entered their borders in early 2020. Concerted solutions are available but require a convergence of intentions which are traditionally hard to come by, in a regional context marked by increasing diversity of economic performances. Further, the public health crisis posed by COVID-19 has brought out fissures in the integration process of Europe between low and high-performing economies. © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2021.

Neoliberal Policy Tool: Active Labour Market Policies in Turkey and Spain

Since activation policies prove their inefficiency in solving existent socio- economic problems, especially after the pandemic crisis of COVID-19, alternative policies other than Active Labour Market Policies (ALMPs) have appeared on the agenda of the EU. This research traces the reasons of the ineffectiveness of activation by highlighting the perception of the beneficiaries of the ALMPs. This article builds on the fieldwork implemented in a member state (Spain) and candidate country (Turkey) of the EU through 78 semi-structured individual interviews with the participants of vocational trainings for unemployed people. Results show that the beneficiaries in both countries are aware of the fact that the activation process does not provide a solution for their socio-economic problems and they desire a decent job, rather than training.

The dilemmas around digital citizenship in a post-Brexit and post-pandemic Northern Ireland: towards an algorithmic nation?

Northern Ireland (NI) has pervasively been a fragile and often disputed city-regional nation. Despite NI's slim majority in favour of remaining in the EU, de facto Brexit, post-pandemic challenges and the Northern Ireland Protocol (NIP) have revealed a dilemma: people of all political hues have started to question aspects of their own citizenship. Consequently, this article suggests an innovative approach called 'Algorithmic Nations' to better articulate its emerging/complex citizenship regimes for this divided and post-conflict society in which identity borders and devolution may be facilitated through blockchain technology. This article assesses implications of this dilemma for a city-regionalised nation enmeshed within the UK, Ireland and Europe. This article explores digital citizenship in NI by applying 'Algorithmic Nations' framework particularly relating to intertwined (i) cross-bordering, (ii) critical awareness, (iii) digital activism and (iv) post-pandemic realities and concludes with three dilemmas and how 'Algorithmic Nations' framing could better integrate NI's digital citizenship. [ FROM AUTHOR] Copyright of Citizenship Studies is the property of Routledge and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full . (Copyright applies to all s.)

The UK, the EU, and COVID-19: Media reporting, the recontextualisation of Eurosceptic discourse, and the fait accompli of Brexit

This article analyses the relationship between the COVID-19 pandemic and the evolving United Kingdom (UK) Eurosceptic discourse in the context of the UK's departure from the European Union (EU). It applies a mixed-method approach of content analysis and critical discourse analysis of newspaper reporting of the EU's handling of the pandemic vis-à-vis the UK during the first lockdown and the rollout of the vaccination programme. During the first lockdown, UK newspapers opted for muted politicisation and polarisation – they downplayed the success of strategies within the EU Member States, but attacked the EU. While during the vaccination rollout they shifted to vocal politicisation and vaccine nationalism which praised the UK, heavily criticised the EU and claimed the EU's Member States suffered as a result of EU incompetence. Against this backdrop the COVID-19 pandemic has put into motion a self-reinforcing discursive shift in which the UK's ability to go it alone not only justifies Brexit, but serves to prove that it will be a success. [ FROM AUTHOR]

Strengthening the link between taxation and democracy for the creation of a European fiscal capacity

The debate on a common tax policy in the EU is a relevant and complex issue wich involves chronic problems related to the tansfer of new competences at European level and which at the same time is linked to some contingencies specific to the current phase of the european integration process. Having regard to the latter profile, the central role of the European institutions ( in particular the Commision) in the management of the crisis due to the Covid-19 represents an opportunity to reflect on the limits of the lack of a common public spending and taxation policy. It is hoped that the direct path to the introducion of the new own resources can start a very substantive discussion on the need to achieve a strengthening of the powers of the EU Parliament, including the attribution to the elected body of the power to establish and regulate own taxes. © 2022, Societa Editoriale Federalismi s.r.l.. All rights reserved.

Innovative Energy Technologies in Road Transport in Selected EU Countries

The primary aim of this study was to assess and classify selected EU countries to groups differing in terms of the degree of implementation of innovative energy technologies to alleviate adverse externalities in road transport. This aim was realised using three groups of research methods: collection of empirical data, data processing and presentation of study outcomes. When collecting the research material, the authors used the method of critical literature review and the documentation method. The research material was processed using the agglomerative clustering technique, which was one of the hierarchical clustering methods. The distance between objects (here, selected EU countries) was determined based on the Euclidean distance. The outcome of this analysis was a dendrogram, which constitutes a graphical interpretation of obtained results. The study was conducted on 21 EU countries. The analyses covered the years 2013–2019. The sources of materials included literature on the subject and the Eurostat data. The problem of innovative energy technologies in road transport is presently of considerable importance. This results from the current situation related to human activity. As a result of the conducted cluster analysis, groups were distinguished based on differences in the use of innovative energy technologies alleviating negative externalities generated by road transport. The first group comprised Sweden, the Netherlands and Finland. Compared to the other groups, this group was distinguished by the highest values of four indexes, i.e., the share of renewable energy sources used in transport in 2019, the share in the market of electric passenger vehicles in 2019, the share in the market of electric lorries in 2019, as well as the share in the market of hybrid automobiles in 2019. Countries which participated the least in the elimination of negative externalities generated by road transport included Romania, Hungary, Greece, Poland, Latvia and Estonia.

On race and ethnicity during a global pandemic: An 'imperfect mosaic' of maternal and child health services in ethnically-diverse South London, United Kingdom.

Background: The SARS-CoV-2 pandemic has brought racial and ethnic inequity into sharp focus, as Black, Asian, and Minority Ethnic people were reported to have greater clinical vulnerability. During the pandemic, priority was given to ongoing, reconfigured maternity and children's healthcare. This study aimed to understand the intersection between race and ethnicity, and healthcare provision amongst maternity and children's healthcare professionals, during the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. Methods: A qualitative study consisting of semi-structured interviews (N = 53) was undertaken with maternity (n = 29; August-November 2020) and children's (n = 24; June-July 2021) healthcare professionals from an NHS Trust in ethnically-diverse South London, UK. Data pertinent to ethnicity and race were subject to Grounded Theory Analysis, whereby data was subjected to iterative coding and interpretive analysis. Using this methodology, data are compared between transcripts to generate lower and higher order codes, before super-categories are formed, which are finally worked into themes. The inter-relationship between these themes is interpreted as a final theory. Findings: Grounded Theory Analysis led to the theory: An 'Imperfect Mosaic', comprising four themes: (1) 'A System Set in Plaster'; (2) 'The Marginalised Majority'; (3) 'Self-Discharging Responsibility for Change-Making'; and (4) 'Slow Progress, Not No Progress'. The NHS was observed to be brittle, lacking plasticity to deliver change at pace. Overt racism based on skin colour has been replaced by micro-aggressions between in-groups and out-groups, defined not just by ethnicity, but by other social determinants. Contemporaneously, responsibility for health, wellbeing, and psychological safety in the workplace is discharged to, and accepted by, the individual. Interpretation: Our findings suggest three practicable solutions: (1) Representation of marginalised groups at all NHS levels; (2) Engagement in cultural humility which extends to other social factors; and (3) Collective action at system and individual levels, including prioritising equity over simplistic notions of equality. Funding: This service evaluation was supported by the King's College London King's Together Rapid COVID-19 Call, successfully awarded to Laura A. Magee, Sergio A. Silverio, Abigail Easter, & colleagues (reference:- 204823/Z/16/Z), as part of a rapid response call for research proposals. The King's Together Fund is a Wellcome Trust funded initiative.

A New Role for the European Stability Mechanism in Post-COVID-19 EMU? Explaining the Failure of the Pandemic Crisis Support and Assessing Ways Forward

Since the establishment of the Pandemic Crisis Support, it has been hypothesized that the European Stability Mechanism might play a new role in stabilizing investments in the European Economic and Monetary Union through a targeted support for the financing of European public goods. The article inquires into the changes in the European Stability Mechanism’s institutional design that could make this possible. It starts by analyzing its lending policy, its accountability structure, and the structure of incentives that underlie negotiations at the Board of Governors. The article then explains the failure of the Pandemic Crisis Support against the background of a neo-institutionalist analysis of the two-level games that develop at intergovernmental fora, and does so through an investigation of the 2020 negotiations that led to the institution of the Pandemic Crisis Support, first, and the The Next Generation EU, later on. Finally, it illustrates which alterations in the institutional design of the European Stability Mechanism could represent a different, and more favorable, structure of incentives for lenders and borrowers.

Leviathan versus the super bugs: free riding drives support for EU power over antimicrobial resistance

The Covid-19 pandemic has spurred a discussion about the role of the European Union (EU) in the governance of cross-border health threats. Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is another major global health challenge that requires international collective action to be resolved. By using survey data from experts on AMR from 29 European countries, this paper investigates the support for an increase in the power of EU over AMR. Based on insights from collective action theory, we hypothesize that experts who believe that other countries free ride, will be more supportive of EU as a Leviathan in the European response to AMR. The results show that the experts generally were strongly in favor of expanding the authority of the EU over AMR. Furthermore, in line with theoretical expectations, experts who think that other countries free ride, are particularly supportive of more EU power over AMR. [ FROM AUTHOR] Copyright of Journal of European Integration is the property of Routledge and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full . (Copyright applies to all s.)

Consolidating the European asylum regime's coercive trajectory until the pandemic

How have European asylum policies developed during the COVID-19 pandemic, from the perspective of the long-term political trajectory of the European asylum regime? When the pandemic broke out, EU member states had for three decades been trying without success to resolve the shortcomings of the 1990 Dublin Convention. The weaknesses in the regime persisted both due to the overloading of frontline member states and the efforts to control secondary flows of asylum seekers within the EU. The pandemic has proved neither a parenthesis nor a turning point in this regard, but has produced a fluid situation that has precipitated the United Kingdom's withdrawal and the consolidation of the long-term trend of using coercion with asylum seekers, among member states and at their external borders. © 2021. All Rights Reserved.

THE INTERNAL MARKET OF THE EUROPEAN UNION AT THE TIME OF THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC

Following the COVID-19 outbreak, the EU Member States have imposed a number of restrictions to prevent the spread of infection. The purpose of this paper is to analyse the recent acquis communautaire which introduces measures affecting the internal market of the European Union, i.e. the right of citizens of the European Union to free movement of persons. Nowadays, we are witnessing many restrictions ranging from those related to the freedom of movement of people from one Member State to another to the ones linked with trade in goods and services. The question arises as to whether the EU is adequately dealing with the public health crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Firstly, it should be pointed out that public health policy falls within the competence of the Member States, while the EU only supports them through its actions (Art. 168 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the EU). In this context, the paper analyses the competence of the EU regarding the health and scope of the EU Health Policy. Secondly, no fundamental market freedom is absolute, so the Member States may impose certain restrictions if they are justified. The protection of public health is certainly one of the legitimate reasons for imposing restrictions, but the question arises as to whether all the measures taken by the Member States are proportionate to the goal and if there is any softer measure that could achieve the same effect. In this context, the existing relevant case law of the European Courts - Court of Justice of the European Union and European Court of Human Rights - is critically assessed and compared.

FAILURE OF EUROPEAN UNION INSTITUTIONS IN RESOLVING CORONAVIRUS CRISIS AND IN SUBSEQUENT REDISTRIBUTION OF FUNDS

The goal of this article is to carefully analyze the political-economic reactions of the European Union Institutions on the pandemic crisis created by the SARS-CoV-2 virus causing Covid-19 disease, commonly known as coronavirus. The first part of the article is dedicated to the general theory of integration, the history of European integration, and the historical development of EU institutions. The general theory of integration and EU institution's development are both included because understanding these basic principles and processes is vital in understanding the contemporary problems within the European Union. The second part of this article is dedicated to the analysis of the reactions done by EU institutions, regional Visegrad group, and selected EU member states to the rapidly spreading Covid-19 disease. The third part of this article is dedicated to possible future outcomes for European nations once the coronavirus pandemic is over. The possible future outcomes of pandemic crisis are in the context of this article changes in European or national legislative, changes in money redistribution done by EU institutions, or changes in the mood among the people living in member states of the European Union.

Use (and abuse?) of states of emergency in the Member States of the European Union during the pandemic

The present pandemic has already become a veritable case study to assess the constitutional foundations of states of emergency and their application in practice. As Covid-19 spread to every corner of the planet, countries rushed to adopt harsh containment measures, often within the framework of one of the states of emergency provided for in their constitutional texts. In this context, this paper analyses the use of states of emergency in the Member States of the European Union from March 2020 to June 2021, focusing in particular on the role of national parliaments and domestic courts in preventing possible abuses of power by the executive in the management of the pandemic.

Introduction to Health Law.

In early February of 2020, attention was drawn to the increased number of deaths and the new cases of coronavirus infection. The epicentre of the outbreak was Wuhan in the People's Republic of China. In order to control the outbreak, Chinese leaders called on the city authorities in Wuhan to set up mass quarantine centres for infected people. The Chinese government took this step to protect the public against infectious disease. This is an example of the conflicts between public health and civil liberties/individual rights. Government authority is the pillar of the public health law. The government retains the power to achieve and maintain common good by restricting - within solid international and national limits - individual rights concerning autonomy, privacy, association, and liberty. Public health agencies have the right to collect, use, and disclose a considerable amount of personal health information and to enforce certain vaccinations, medical examinations, and treatments. In addition to the power to isolate individuals to protect the public against the spread of infectious disease, their powers can be used to control businesses and professions. There are several legal interventions to prevent injury and disease and promote the public's health. Among these tools are taxing policies, which encourage engaging in beneficial behaviour (fruit consumption) and disincentives to engage in high-risk activities (smoking).