Latest posts from all blogs
Recently, the European Commission announced plans for ‘a robust, efficient and fair tax framework’ that should get business taxation up to speed with the 21st century. It includes proposals for a single set of corporate tax rules in the EU with ‘fairer allocation of taxing rights between Member States’, greater public tax transparency and a […]
In 2015, the EU declared a ‘migration crisis’ and signalled an intention to take swift and determined action in response to migrant deaths in the Mediterranean. By the end of 2015, the number of migrant arrivals and first-time asylum applicants in the EU reached over 1.25 million applications. The notion of crisis became firmly entrenched […]
The last decade for Europe is one that was marked by multiple crises. Between 2009 and 2019, the term austerity dominated every discussion about the economy. The dominance of austerity in the Eurozone crisis years created the impression that there was something fundamentally different compared to previous episodes of politics in hard times. While in […]
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“What unites us better than Les Bleus?” (“Qui nous unit mieux que les Bleus ?”). Good question. TF1, Europe’s largest television channel and long-standing partner of the French national team, used it as teaser during the European football championship last summer. An excellent promotional slogan, underpinned by an emotional video of suffering and celebrating the […]
Martina Vukasovic In 2015 the Norwegian government launched a large-scale re-organisation in higher education. The policy solution proposed, like in many other cases, involved mergers of higher education institutions. There were several formal policy goals, such as robust academic environments, good access to education and expertise, contribution to regional development and effective use of resources. […]
For years now, party-based Euroscepticism has been broadly conceived – various taxonomies notwithstanding – as either in favour of reforming the EU ‘soft Euroscepticism’ or leaving it altogether ‘hard Euroscepticism’. It has been particularly so in the case of Euroscepticism on the left. However, in a recent article for the Journal of Common Market Studies, […]
Recent years have seen a rise of populist radical right (PRR) forces across Europe. Inside the current European Parliament (EP), they make up almost a third of MEPs, more than doubling their seat share in a decade. This increase in representation reflects growing public scepticism towards European integration. Still, ideological divergences have so far prevented […]
With the new ‘traffic light’ government in Germany, one could have expected a game changer in Germany’s approach to fiscal integration. Instead, the coalition agreement is a compromise between maintaining the old fiscal regulatory framework and showing some moderate opening towards new European spending powers. The coalition agreement of the new German government led by […]
The arrival of 2022 has brought both continuity and change to the UK’s relationship with the EU. The resignation of Lord Frost in December has precipitated a major reorganisation (possibly still on-going) of the government’s management of EU and Brexit affairs, but the new point on the relationship – Foreign Secretary Liz Truss – has […]
How fitting: this spring, ARTE, the brainy French-German TV channel, will broadcast a second season of ‘En thérapie’, the French version of ‘In Treatment’ (itself based on the Israeli TV hit “Be Tipul”). 35 new episodes of people on the psychiatrist’s couch, composing what Le Monde called ‘an immobile travel across French society in the […]
The next steps in the EU’s constitutional development must involve greater care for the wider Europe, Andrew Duff argues. He proposes the introduction of a new category of EU affiliate membership, allowing the EU’s western and eastern neighbours alike to become stable and reliable partners. One of the more diverting exercises in literary criticism during […]
The corona recovery fund, now formally known as Next Generation EU, has been the European Union’s (EU) most important response to the economic and social damages caused by the Covid-19 pandemic. Unprecedently, the 27 member states entrusted the European Commission to borrow €750 billion and to allocate the money – in large parts in the […]
Who sets the European Union’s policy agenda? The complex nature of the EU’s legislative process, combined with the lack of a clear hierarchy among the core EU institutions, means that it is hard to disentangle the policy contributions of different institutions and determine which one is ultimately responsible for the legislative priorities of the Union. […]
