Mapping the moral foundations of the European Union: Why a lack of moral diversity may undermine perceived EU legitimacy.

The stability and effectiveness of supranational organizations, like the European Union (EU), will improve when citizens perceive them as legitimate. Across three studies, two of which were preregistered, and a preregistered pilot study, we combined EU legal expertise with social psychological theory on morality to understand how perceived EU legitimacy is influenced by a sense of moral alignment with the EU. We propose that, currently, the EU gives more weight to values linked to "individualizing" moral foundations (e.g. compassion, social justice, and equality) than to values linked to "binding" moral foundations (e.g. patriotism, religion, and traditionalism). As this may leave people who endorse binding moral foundations feel unrepresented, we investigated whether the EU could gain legitimacy by appealing to values that resonate with binding moral foundations. In study 1, text analyses revealed that the European Commission President's State of the Union speeches indeed appeal more to individualizing than to binding moral foundations. Study 2 (n = 595) provided correlational evidence that the negative relationship between binding moral foundations and perceived EU legitimacy was mediated by lower moral alignment with EU law. Finally, study 3 (n = 567) showed through an experiment that reframing or rebalancing EU law to better align it with binding moral foundations could increase perceived EU legitimacy among people who endorse these moral foundations. The results illustrate the importance of understanding and attending to moral diversity among EU citizens. More generally, our work shows how a collaboration between social psychology and law contributes to safeguarding the legitimacy of supranational organizations.

A health-conformant reading of the GDPR's right not to be subject to automated decision-making.

As the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) technologies in healthcare is expanding, patients in the European Union (EU) are increasingly subjected to automated medical decision-making. This development poses challenges to the protection of patients' rights. A specific patients' right not to be subject to automated medical decision-making is not considered part of the traditional portfolio of patients' rights. The EU AI Act also does not contain such a right. The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) does, however, provide for the right 'not to be subject to a decision based solely on automated processing' in Article 22. At the same time, this provision has been severely critiqued in legal scholarship because of its lack of practical effectiveness. However, in December 2023, the Court of Justice of the EU first provided an interpretation of this right in C-634/21 (SCHUFA)-although in the context of credit scoring. Against this background, this article provides a critical analysis of the application of Article 22 GDPR to the medical context. The objective is to evaluate whether Article 22 GDPR may provide patients with the right to refuse automated medical decision-making. It proposes a health-conformant reading to strengthen patients' rights in the EU.

Coexistence field trials between MON810 and conventional maize in Mallorca as a basis for a regional regulatory proposal based on scientific evidence in the times of genome editing.

This paper reports the first coexistence field trials between transgenic and conventional maize carried out under Mediterranean island conditions. Their purpose was to assess the local validity of pollen barriers and sowing delays as coexistence strategies as a basis for a regional regulation on the subject. Two field trials were performed in two agricultural states of Alcudia and Palma, in Mallorca (Spain). In the first one, two adjacent plots were synchronously sown with conventional and transgenic maize, respectively. In the second trial, the previous design was replicated, and two additional plots sown with GM maize were added, paired with their respective conventional recipient plots sown 2 and 4 weeks later. All conventional plots were located downwind from their respective GM plots. Of the two conventional plots in sowing synchrony, only one of them required a 2.25 m pollen barrier to meet the 0.9% labeling threshold. A 4-week sowing delay between GM and non-GM plots proved to be enough to keep the GM content of the recipient plots below the legal threshold. However, with a 2-week sowing delay additional coexistence measures such as pollen barriers might be needed, as suggested in the literature. Results are consistent with previous research conducted in the northeast of Spain, thus validating in the island's agroclimatic conditions a model successfully tested in that peninsular region which allows to accurately estimate the need and width of pollen barriers. The results presented here could perhaps be extrapolated to other islands, coastal areas, and regions with stable prevailing winds during the maize flowering season.

A step forward in health-related IoT cybersecurity: remarks on the proposal for a liability for defective products directive.

This article outlines the efforts of the European Union in health-related IoT (H-IoT) cybersecurity. The first part identifies cyber threats that are specific to H-IoT. The second part covers the overall regulatory picture and briefly addresses both existing law and legislative initiatives. The third part discusses the Proposal for a Liability for Defective Products Directive and the measures it contains that relate directly to H-IoT.

The persistence of legal uncertainty on EU citizens' access to social benefits in Germany.

Legal uncertainty may hinder the effective implementation of public policies. Still, the political and legal dynamics that underpin its persistence are underexplored. This article proposes that legal uncertainty is more likely to persist in multi-level political and legal systems where actors with authority on the same issue hold different interpretations of rules. Also, it suggests that, under these conditions, actors can use legal uncertainty as an opportunity to advance their own interests. We illustrate this argument by investigating the legal uncertainty concerning EU citizens' access to social benefits in Germany. Through the analysis of social legislation and courts' rulings, the article shows that different interpretations of EU law by domestic actors hindered the possibilities of settling uncertainty: national courts of different levels used litigation processes and referrals to the Court of Justice of the European Union to advance their legal interpretations and the German government profited from the uncertainty to exclude EU citizens from social benefits.

Future-Proof Regulation against the Test of Time: The Evolution of European Telecommunications Regulation.

Regulation is sometimes designed to be future-proof, so that it can adapt to changing economic and technological realities. The EU (and UK) Regulatory Framework for electronic communications was expressly crafted to be able to adjust to the evolution of the industry. This article considers how well the regime has stood the test of time and, based on this analysis, what lessons can be drawn for regulation more generally. It appears that, by and large, the Framework has effectively accompanied the transformation of telecommunications in Europe. On the other hand, the EU legislature's commitment to future-proof intervention has waned over time. Every new review of the regime has represented a move away from the philosophy and mechanisms conceived to ensure that regulation would adapt seamlessly to industry shifts. This experience suggests that the failure or success of future-proof intervention primarily hinges on the intertemporal consistency of legislatures.

What is an emergency? Neonicotinoids and emergency situations in plant protection in the EU.

Actions potentially harmful to the environment that are otherwise illegal are sometimes permitted in cases of emergency. How to define an emergency can therefore be both controversial and highly consequential. In this article, we explore one such contemporary controversy: when the use of neonicotinoid pesticides, banned in the EU, can nevertheless be granted an emergency authorization. We analyse several questions, currently before the EU Court of Justice in the ongoing Pesticide Action Network Europe and Others case, that will determine the scope of an "emergency" in the context of derogating from the Pesticide Regulation, and that may impact how "emergencies" are defined in other legal contexts. We argue that the circumstances do not support a legal finding that emergency authorization is justified in this case, and that, in general, "emergencies" must be narrowly defined when justifying measures that involve risks to human health and the environment.

Towards an EU legislation on the right to be forgotten to access to financial services for cancer survivors.

INTRODUCTION: Financial discrimination may affect an increasing number of cancer survivors in Europe as a consequence of the improvement of cancer management. According to the latest projections, Europe counts around 20 million cancer survivors. In the few years, the issue raised the attention of the European policymakers. OBJECTIVES: The goal of this study is to promote political and legal solutions taking into consideration the need to stop discrimination against cancer survivors. The article also aims to implement legal principles on patients' rights and social values at the national and European levels, emphasising EU competence on the matter. METHODS: The article reviews the current legal aspects concerning the right to be forgotten (RTBF) for cancer survivors in Europe, and it analyses the EU competency for its implementation. RESULTS: The legislative initiatives in force in France, Belgium, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, and Portugal provide concrete examples of an effective solution for former patients that should be extended throughout the EU. Under these circumstances, the European Legislator could lead on multiple initiatives to implement at the European level the RTBF, as our research has demonstrated the EU competency for these matters. CONCLUSION: A Pan-European solution based on the implementation of the RTBF is feasible within current treaties and seems the best approach to tackle the issue. The EU Action would provide a common and harmonised regulatory framework among the Member States to avoid discrimination and ensure equality among EU citizens being cured of cancer.

Is it time to reconsider the use of vital teeth bleaching in children and adolescents in Europe?

PURPOSE: The aim of this study was to determine whether carbamide peroxide is effective in bleaching vital permanent teeth in children. METHODS: A literature search was conducted using all keywords relevant to the research subject. The outcome measures were identified as colour change, tooth sensitivity, oral irritation and patient satisfaction. The certainty of evidence for each outcome was assessed using the current GRADE guidelines. RESULTS: Of 115 potentially relevant articles, 112 were excluded, as they did not exclusively involve children, intervention involved additional treatment such as microabrasion or restorative work, or case studies. Patient satisfaction was not assessed in the three articles so no analysis could be made with regards to this outcome. The GRADE assessment showed that all of the three articles demonstrated very low certainty of evidence for the other assessed outcomes. The overall findings from the studies suggest that a 10% carbamide peroxide overnight tray system is effective at bleaching vital permanent teeth in children and associated tooth sensitivity and oral irritation are found to be in a similar range compared to those reported in adult studies. However, due to the very low certainty of the evidence, it is not possible to draw these conclusions. CONCLUSION: Better quality randomised controlled trials are needed to investigate the indication, short and long term effectiveness and side effects of carbamide teeth in vital permanent teeth in children.

Abortion by telemedicine in the European Union.

This paper analyses an important set of legal issues raised by the telemedical provision of abortion pills. Focusing on the case of European Union (EU) law, it suggests that a properly accredited doctor seeking to treat a patient with abortion pills is entitled, in principle, to rely on EU rules of free movement to protect their access to patients in other member states, and women facing unwanted pregnancies likewise have legal rights to access the services thus offered. EU countries seeking to claim an exception to those rules on the basis of public health or the protection of a fundamental public policy interest (here, the protection of fetal life) will face significant barriers.

Serum Steroid Ratio Profiles in Prostate Cancer: A New Diagnostic Tool Toward a Personalized Medicine Approach.

BACKGROUND: Serum steroids are crucial molecules altered in prostate cancer (PCa). Mass spectrometry (MS) is currently the elected technology for the analysis of steroids in diverse biological samples. Steroids have complex biological pathways and stoichiometry and it is important to evaluate their quantitative ratio. MS applications to patient hormone profiling could lead to a diagnostic approach. METHODS: Here, we employed the Surface Activated Chemical Ionization-Electrospray-NIST (SANIST) developed in our laboratories, to obtain quantitative serum steroid ratio relationship profiles with a machine learning Bayesian model to discriminate patients with PCa. The approach is focused on steroid relationship profiles and disease association. RESULTS: A pilot study on patients affected by PCa, benign prostate hypertrophy (BPH), and control subjects [prostate-specific antigen (PSA) lower than 2.5 ng/mL] was done in order to investigate the classification performance of the SANIST platform. The steroid profiles of 71 serum samples (31 controls, 20 patients with PCa and 20 subjects with benign prostate hyperplasia) were evaluated. The levels of 10 steroids were quantitated on the SANIST platform: Aldosterone, Corticosterone, Cortisol, 11-deoxycortisol, Androstenedione, Testosterone, dehydroepiandrosterone, dehydroepiandrosterone sulfate (DHEAS), 17-OH-Progesterone and Progesterone. We performed both traditional and a machine learning analysis. CONCLUSION: We show that the machine learning approach based on the steroid relationships developed here was much more accurate than the PSA, DHEAS, and direct absolute value match method in separating the PCa, BPH and control subjects, increasing the sensitivity to 90% and specificity to 84%. This technology, if applied in the future to a larger number of samples will be able to detect the individual enzymatic disequilibrium associated with the steroid ratio and correlate it with the disease. This learning machine approach could be valid in a personalized medicine setting.

SANIST: optimization of a technology for compound identification based on the European Union directive with applications in forensic, pharmaceutical and food analyses.

Electrospray Ionization and collision induced dissociation tandem mass spectrometry are usually employed to obtain compound identification through a mass spectra match. Different algorithms have been developed for this purpose (for example the nist match algorithm). These approaches compare the tandem mass spectra of the unknown analyte with the tandem mass spectra spectra of known compounds inserted in a database. The compounds are usually identified on the basis of spectral match value associated with a probability of recognition. However, this approach is not usually applied to multiple reaction monitoring transition spectra achieved by means of triple quadrupole apparatus, mainly due to the lack of a transition spectra database. The Surface Activated Chemical Ionization-Electrospray-NIST Bayesian model database search (SANIST) platform has been recently developed for new potential metabolite biomarker discovery, to confirm their identity and to use them for clinical and diagnostic applications. Here, we present an improved version of the SANIST platform that extends its application to forensic, pharmaceutical, and food analysis studies, where the compound identification rules are strict. The European Union (EU) has set directives for compound identification (EU directive 2002/657/EC). We have applied the SANIST method to identification of 11-nor-9-carboxytetrahydro-cannabinol in urine samples (an example of a forensic application), circulating levels of the immunosuppressive drug tacrolimus in blood (an example of a pharmaceutical application) and glyphosate in fruit juice (an example of a food analysis application) that meet the EU directive requirements. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Introducing competition principles into health care through EU law and policy: a case study of the Netherlands.

A national health care service is one of the central pillars of the welfare state in Europe. Recent moves to modernise health care, alongside introducing efficiencies through competition have resulted in experimentation and a re-organisation of national health care systems. The experimental nature of the reforms has brought health care into the focus, but uncertain territory, of EU economic law, especially competition law. Added to these pressures, the new EU fiscal measures oblige Member States to avoid excessive budgets and macro-economic imbalances. One constraint on an EU-based system of competition in health care is the effect of decentralisation, resulting in variations at the national level. Thus a case study is taken of the experience in The Netherlands. From this case study, we argue that a new form of Euro-national competition law is emerging for the health care sector with national authorities taking the lead in shaping the contours of this law.