The ‘European Semester’, a new framework for policy co-ordination across European Union (EU) member states, represents a major step in EU governance. Created in 2010 in the wake of the financial... Show moreThe ‘European Semester’, a new framework for policy co-ordination across European Union (EU) member states, represents a major step in EU governance. Created in 2010 in the wake of the financial and sovereign debt crises and revamped in 2015, it was intended to provide a new socioeconomic governance architecture to co-ordinate national policies without transferring full sovereignty to the EU level. This introduction offers a brief overview and assessment of the European Semester, examining its implications along three critical axes, running respectively between the economic and the social, the supranational and the intergovernmental, and the technocratic and democratic poles of EU governance. We introduce and briefly summarize the seven other contributions that make up this collection. Our conclusions are that the European Semester challenges established theoretical understandings of EU governance, as it is a prime example of the complexity that supersedes simple polar oppositions. Show less
BACKGROUND The first European Perinatal Health Report showed wide variability between European countries in fetal (2.6-9.1‰) and neonatal (1.6-5.7‰) mortality rates in 2004. We investigated... Show moreBACKGROUND The first European Perinatal Health Report showed wide variability between European countries in fetal (2.6-9.1‰) and neonatal (1.6-5.7‰) mortality rates in 2004. We investigated gestational age patterns of fetal and neonatal mortality to improve our understanding of the differences between countries with low and high mortality. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS Data on 29 countries/regions participating in the Euro-Peristat project were analyzed. Most European countries had no limits for the registration of live births, but substantial variations in limits for registration of stillbirths before 28 weeks of gestation existed. Country rankings changed markedly after excluding deaths most likely to be affected by registration differences (22-23 weeks for neonatal mortality and 22-27 weeks for fetal mortality). Countries with high fetal mortality ≥28 weeks had on average higher proportions of fetal deaths at and near term (≥37 weeks), while proportions of fetal deaths at earlier gestational ages (28-31 and 32-36 weeks) were higher in low fetal mortality countries. Countries with high neonatal mortality rates ≥24 weeks, all new member states of the European Union, had high gestational age-specific neonatal mortality rates for all gestational-age subgroups; they also had high fetal mortality, as well as high early and late neonatal mortality. In contrast, other countries with similar levels of neonatal mortality had varying levels of fetal mortality, and among these countries early and late neonatal mortality were negatively correlated. CONCLUSIONS For valid European comparisons, all countries should register births and deaths from at least 22 weeks of gestation and should be able to distinguish late terminations of pregnancy from stillbirths. After excluding deaths most likely to be influenced by existing registration differences, important variations in both levels and patterns of fetal and neonatal mortality rates were found. These disparities raise questions for future research about the effectiveness of medical policies and care in European countries. Show less
