CE Marking of Construction Products—Evolution of the European Approach to Harmonisation of Construction Products in the Light of Environmental Sustainability Aspects

European harmonisation of construction products provides a uniform expression of performance aspects relevant for essential characteristics coming from notified technical building regulations of the EU Member States. Since the current regulation has been in force for over seven years, this study evaluates further possibilities of its evolution, including a more efficient approach to implementing environmental sustainability aspects. The provided research is based on qualitative analysis of the past and current legislation, official documents, related guidance, judgements, scientific articles and the author’s practical experience coming from participation in the European committees, organisations and standardisation activities. Various legislative techniques and regulatory tools that could be potentially used to review the Construction Products Regulation are analysed and compared with regards to their impact on the inclusion of environmental sustainability principles. Therefore, the objective of this research is to provide substantive grounds that can be directly or indirectly used in the policymaking processes on the European and national level.

Las sentencias piloto como ejemplo paradigmático de la transformación del Tribunal Europeo de Derechos Humanos

Después de 50 años desde que el TEDH dictara su primera sentencia, ha llegado el momento de replantearse la función definitoria de esta jurisdicción. Esto supone reconocer y analizar con detalle la tensión existente entre su función de tutela y su función como fijadora de estándares a través de los que se produce el proceso de armonización europea en materia de derechos fundamentales. Este replanteamiento supone, en realidad, determinar cual de las dos funciones, la tuitiva o la armonizadora, debe prevalecer en la determinación de la posición del Tribunal de Estrasburgo en el espacio judicial europeo. Uno de los elementos más claros de esta transformación del Tribunal en el espacio europeo de los derechos humanos es el procedimiento de caso piloto, banco de pruebas de las potencialidades del Tribunal Europeo como Tribunal Constitucional Europeo.Fifty years after the ECtHR delivered its first judgement, the time has come to rethink the defining function of this jurisdiction. That means recognizing and analyzing in detail the tension between its role as a protector of individual rights and its role as a standard-setting body through which the process of European harmonisation in the field of fundamental rights takes place. This rethinking actually means considering which of the two functions, the protective or the harmonising one, should prevail in determining the position of the Court of Strasbourg in the European judicial area. One of the clearest elements of this transformation of the Court is the pilot judgment procedure, which tests the potential of the European Court as the European Constitutional Court.

Towards European harmonisation of contagious equine metritis diagnosis through interlaboratory trials

The performance of culture and PCR methods routinely used to diagnose contagious equine metritis (CEM) was evaluated and compared by two interlaboratory trials involving a total of 24 European laboratories, including 22 National Reference Laboratories for CEM. Samples were swab specimens artificially contaminated with bacteria present in the genital tract of Equidae, some with and some without Taylorella equigenitalis, the causative agent of CEM, and T asinigenitalis, responsible for possible misidentification as T equigenitalis. Throughout both interlaboratory trials, PCR performed better in terms of specificity and sensitivity than the culture method, supporting the assertion that PCR should be accepted for CEM diagnosis. However, the culture performance during the second interlaboratory trial was better than during the first one, suggesting that the expertise of participants improved. This reveals the advantage of regular interlaboratory trials to constantly improve the expertise of laboratories. It also shows the need to develop new culture media that are more selective and/or better geared to the metabolism of T equigenitalis in order to improve the bacteriological diagnosis of CEM.