Civil wars in Darfur or Syria showed what the global effects of migration could be and proved the importance of creation of multi-stakeholder partnerships. The consensus is not easy to find but only a global partnership for the migration climatic challenge can create proper conditions for successful and sustainable action. The European Union should assume its leading role in establishing a universal approach of “climate migrations”, based on its fundamental values: respect of human rights and global security. This article reviews the efforts to develop the understanding of the importance of global and cross-organisational involvement regarding migration in the context of climate changes. It highlights the initial effort to regulate and define the concepts of migration and refugees’ seekers by international organisations. More specifically, the article concentrates on more recent efforts to formulate common actions and policies crossing the European Union borders and passing by the international organisations and NGO’s involved in this matter.

European Union's energy security strategy towards its Eastern European neighbours stems out of direct application of EU procedures, directives and regulations in non-EU states. Economic diplomacy tactics used by the European Union in its Eastern vicinity is a vector of positive social and environmental change, as modification of the energy mix and enhancing energy efficiency measures will contribute to these countries' successful energy transition and improvement of environmental indicators, and will lower end-user tariffs. In this article, we discuss the pattern observed during the past years in the implementation of provisions included in the Third Energy Package by non-EU contracting parties (specifically, Republic of Moldova and Ukraine) to the Energy Community. The impact of functional unbundling of energy operators and liberalization of energy markets in these Eastern Partnership member states is analysed. Russia's direct implication in internal matters related of the energy sector in these EaP countries is part of a bigger state of play, implemented over the past decades as a tool of geopolitical competition in this region. Overall, predictable business environment combined with harmonised legislation complying with the EU energy acquis ensures energy security and allows for political stabilization, thus tackling the challenges of Russia's influence in Eastern Europe.

The collapse of USSR in late 1980's and the beginning of 1990's was accompanied by a series of local and regional separatist movements that have rapidly burst out into local violent confrontations or civil wars, resulting in so-called "frozen conflicts" in Abkhazia and South Ossetia (Georgia), Transnistria (Moldova) and others. Since 2014, the Eastern part of Ukraine (Donetsk and Luhansk regions) is undergoing a seemingly similar scenario. Large numbers of people originating from conflict zones have migrated to Western Europe in search for peace, better economic conditions and personal and professional accomplishment. How do these migrants identify themselves once settled in destination countries? How do they define their own "national identity", as persons originating from unrecognized "States"? In this paper, we compare the cases of these separatist regions in an attempt to offer an insight into a new topic, situated at the confluence of migration studies, geopolitics and ethnology.

The Energy Union Strategy, launched in February 2015, is a vast project aiming at identifying a set of common responses to a series of present and future challenges in the field of energy. The question of energy security occupies a central position in EU’s relationships with its neighbours. In this context, economic and political ties with the Russian Federation in its role of major supplier of energy resources to EU member states are of crucial importance. Acquiring a higher degree of independence from the Russian supply of natural gas has been proclaimed as a national priority by several ex-Soviet republics. Moldova, Ukraine and Georgia have recently signed Association Agreements with the EU. We look into the early stages of the implementation of AA’s and analyse their consequences on the EU – Russia relations in the energy field. A series of common characteristics and possible developments in the field of energy are analysed.

Negative effects of massive emigration originating from the Republic of Moldova Doina Guzun, Dorin Dusciac, Ala Mindicanu, Sandra Ayad, Frédéric Boisard 1 University Paris Diderot-Paris 7, France. 2 President of the Association for the Integration of Migrants (AIM), Paris, France, Deputy Minister Ministry of Environment of the Republic of Moldova (2014 – 2015). 3 President of the Moldovan Community of Québec, Member of the Parliament of the Republic of Moldova (1994 – 2001). 4 Head of the Center for International Research and Documentation of Sexual Exploitation, Scelles Foundation, Paris, France. 5 Community manager, Center for International Research and Documentation of Sexual Exploitation, Scelles Foundation, Paris, France. e-mail: doina.guzun@gmail.com

Contemporary Republic of Moldova is part of the Romanian ethnical and cultural space. The territory is a recent geopolitical construct, a consequence of the Soviet invasion of Romania (1940) and of further territorial "adjustments". Within its actual borders, Moldova gained its independence from Russia in 1991. From the very early days, the newly independent republic was subjected to internal separatist movements supported by Russian military aggression (1992). In the last two decades the Republic of Moldova traversed a very profound economic and social crisis resulting in a sharp decrease of living standards and a massive emigration of an impoverished population in search for material stability. In its foreign policy, Moldova has constantly oscillated between the allegiance to the Community of Independent States and the path of European integration. Solid progress in the European integration process has been achieved in recent years (2009-present), after the fall of the Communist rule (2001-2009). In the light of recent developments, it seems that the geopolitical balance inclines West-wards, as a means for the Republic of Moldova to regain its natural European destiny and thus re-integrate its cultural and ethnic Romanian space.

A recent spectroscopic study showed that alkoxy monolayers grafted on a (111) silicon surface thermally decompose in the 200–400 °C range by fragmentation of the alkyl chains [Surf. Sci. 601 (2007) 3961]. Here this behavior is reproduced by a numerical simulation, assuming that the elementary fragmentation steps have different probabilities, depending on the length of the fragments formed. The variation of the CH2/CH3 ratio, as determined experimentally by infrared spectroscopy, is reproduced with a set of fragmentation probabilities consistent with the enthalpy variation associated with each corresponding step.

Engineering of the silicon/high-permittivity (high-kappa) dielectric interface by grafting an ultrathin organic layer on the silicon surface before HfO2 deposition is explored. Si(111) and Si(100) surfaces are functionalized using methyl groups as well as long alkoxy and functionalized alkyl chains. Amorphous HfO2 films are deposited by metal organic. chemical vapor deposition. We show that methyl or carboxydecyl groups efficiently inhibit the formation of SiO2, while the quality of the HfO2 layer (uniformity, permittivity) is not affected by the grafting. The flatband voltage in metal-oxide-semiconductor structures with films grown on methyl grafted p-type Si(100) is shifted by an additional similar to 100 to 300 mV compared to that with films grown on a chemical SiO2 oxide. This is in good agreement with the expected dipole effect related to the grafting of such molecules on silicon. The interfacial state density is comparable to the one measured on films grown on SiO2/Si. This study opens up the route for the engineering of the Si/high-kappa oxide interface using organic grafting.

The use of high-K oxides as gate dielectrics in MOS Field Effect Transistors appears as a mandatory step to maintain the continuous increase of the electric performances of these electronic devices. Unfortunately, the deposition of these oxides generates serious problems (formation of an intermediate silicon oxide or metallic silicide layer, poor control of the electronic quality of interfaces, low carrier mobility, etc.). Direct grafting of organic monolayers on Si prior to high-K material deposition appears as an efficient method for obtaining a high-quality Si/high-K interface. The grafting of organic saturated chains by Si-O-C bonding has been explored. Thermal stability of the grafted monolayers has been studied using infrared spectroscopy. The spectra indicate that monolayer decomposition takes place via the fragmentation of the grafted chains rather than via Si-O-C bond breaking. This process has been modeled with a numerical simulation. For the optimization of the grafted organic monolayers, efforts have been oriented towards the grafting of ultra-short functional chains with hydrophilic end groups. However, the functional end groups of these chains may interfere with the grafting reaction, either by inhibiting the reactivity of the end group to be grafted, or by inducing parasitic reactions. The hydrolysis of short grafted esters has not been achieved without the parallel hydrolysis of the Si-O-C bonding. The deposition of HfO2 layers has been performed on organic monolayers that can be grafted in controlled conditions. The deposited layers are continuous, nevertheless their roughness is higher than that of layers deposited directly onto non-grafted silicon surfaces. Infrared analysis indicates partial decomposition of the organic layer but the silicon surface appears well protected from oxidation. These preliminary results suggest that the thermal stability of the organic layer does not constitute an insurmountable barrier and that the explored pathway may be considered as viable. Key-words: organic layers, high-K oxides, grafting, infrared spectroscopy, thermal stability, hydrolysis

Direct grafting of organic monolayers on Si is of prime interest in order to give specific properties to a silicon surface. However, for microelectronics applications, this possibility is hampered by the limited stability of the grafted layers. It has been previously established that alkyl layers attached to Si surfaces through Si–C bonds become unstable at 250–300 °C, by desorption of alkenes. Changing the nature of the bonding to the surface might allow one to circumvent this desorption pathway and increase the layer stability. In our work, decanol and decyl aldehyde are reacted with the Si(1 1 1)–H surface at ∼100 °C during 20 h in order to obtain alkoxy monolayers. FTIR measurements performed in ATR geometry show that the grafted molecule surface coverage is on the order of 33% after reaction with decanol and 50% after reaction with decyl aldehyde. Characterization by AFM essentially reveals that the morphology of the grafted surfaces is unaffected as compared to that of Si–H surfaces. However, the edges of the terraces at alcohol-grafted surfaces exhibit some pitting, probably due to the presence of water in the grafting liquid. Thermal stability studies show that alkoxy chains progressively disappear from the Si surface between 200 and 400 °C. From the CH2/CH3 ratio in the CH region (2760–3070 cm−1), it appears that the chains undergo progressive dissociation by C–C bond breaking before their complete disappearance from the surface. Therefore, the thermal behaviour of alkoxy monolayers appears quite distinct from that of alkyl monolayers that tend to leave the surface in a much narrower temperature range (250–350 °C), essentially via breaking of the Si–C bonds.

We present a detailed analysis of electrically active gate oxide defects on damascene CMOS devices with a HfO/sub 2/ gate dielectric and a TiN/W gate electrode. The interface state density (D/sub it/) and the trapped oxide charge (N/sub it/) are determined by 2 and 3-level charge pumping analysis on high-quality nMOS and pMOS transistors. Furthermore, we discuss the influence of the gate stack defects on the carrier mobility in the channel and correlate the reduction of the gate oxide defect density to a mobility improvement for both electrons and holes.