06 July 2023
Reform the European Union for Enlargement!
External shocks such as the financial and migration crises, the Coronavirus pandemic, as well as internal and external security threats from terrorism as well as Russia's war against Ukraine emphasise that the EU, which has developed to be more heterogeneous, has become increasingly fragile. In line with a reduced willingness and ability of Member States to integrate further, the EU is becoming incapable of action and therefore is in danger of losing the trust of its citizens. Against this background, it is important not to gloss over the problems and to develop constructive solutions. This blogpost offers several possible solutions. Continue reading >>
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25 February 2018
EU Leaders’ Agenda: Who’s Afraid of Reforms?
Last Friday’s ‘informal’ meeting of the European Council was a key moment in what its President, Donald Tusk, proudly calls his Leaders’ Agenda. Tusk wanted the event to prove that the heads of government are in charge of the EU constitutive process, and to prevent either the European Parliament or the Commission from seizing the initiative. As such it misfired. Continue reading >>18 February 2017
No More Blame Game: Back to the Future of Comitology
Political responsibility of Member States for sensitive EU executive action will be hard to get. But it is worth trying. Continue reading >>09 December 2016
After the Italian Referendum
So much was at stake for Italy, its political class and its economy, and for the European Union (EU) and its member states in the country’s failed referendum on constitutional reform. In the EU, Germany is a particularly sensitive case. The relations between Germany and Italy are a focal point in Europe. They used to be in an asymmetric, albeit comforting, equilibrium. Continue reading >>22 July 2016
10 (pro-EU) reasons to be cheerful after Brexit
As the dust continues to swirl around the momentous Brexit referendum result a month ago (and doesn’t show any signs of settling anytime soon) I suspect many EU sympathisers will be somewhere in the middle of the various stages of the Kübler-Ross Grief cycle: denial, anger, bargaining, depression, acceptance. So, somewhat incongruosly, are the ‘leavers’. Whereas there are almost as many emotions being experienced on all sides as there are potential options on what will happen next both in terms of the UK’s future relationship with the EU as well as the future of the EU itself, in this post I want to set out a number of (pro-EU) reasons – some obvious, some optimistic, others wildly speculative – to be cheerful amidst the uncertainty created by the Brexit vote. Continue reading >>25 June 2016
Five Questions on Brexit to KENNETH ARMSTRONG
... and five very succinct answers by Cambridge EU law professor Kenneth Armstrong, Continue reading >>
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15 June 2016
“Wir sollten sagen: Wer nicht will, der hat schon”
Christoph Möllers im Verfassungsblog-Interview über das bevorstehende Brexit-Referendum, und warum die EU die Briten selbstbewusst ziehen lassen sollte, wenn diese das wollen. Continue reading >>08 March 2016
Sovereignty Safeguards in the UK-EU Settlement
The U.K.-EU settlement, despite being legally binding and only amendable with the U.K.’s consent, does little to reaffirm British sovereignty. It is primarily a set of restatements and interpretations of existing EU law with new proposals primarily in the area of social policy. Continue reading >>09 February 2016
Why Tusk’s Proposal is not so Bad
Should the other EU member states rebuff the UK’s reform demands and seize the opportunity to amend the Constitutional treaties instead? Unlike Federico Fabbrini, who in his post of the 3rd of February proposed they should, I will argue that European integration doesn’t follow a linear path, and it may therefore be necessary to give in to some requests. This would not lead to EU disintegration. Continue reading >>26 January 2016
David Cameron’s EU reform claims: If not ‘ever closer union’, what?
UK Prime Minister David Cameron claims that the reforms he seeks for Britain will be good for the European Union as a whole. That proposition deserves examination. Here we focus on only one, but the most totemic of his demands – namely that the UK wins a ‘formal, legally-binding and irreversible’ exemption from the EU’s historic mission of ‘ever closer union of the peoples of Europe’. Jobs and immigration might stir the masses in the referendum campaign, but it is the issue of ‘ever closer union’ that divides most sharply the sovereignists from the federalists and could, if mishandled, do severe collateral damage to the rest of the EU. Continue reading >>
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