Will it bring nations closer together or pull them apart? The Financial Times commentator, Martin Wolf, has wrote an article on March 24th entitled the Pandemic is an Ethical Challenge. There seems little doubt that it will change the world fundamentally affecting every other issue, rivalries and conflicts, the role of governments, the role of […]
The government’s approach to building a post-Brexit trade policy appears based on Zen philosophy rather than economics. In economics textbooks, trade is a two-handed exchange between two people, an exporter and an importer, and one of these is foreign.
As much as people talk about Brexit at all right now, much of what you hear is the cry that an extension of the Withdrawal Agreement’s transition period must happen. I’ve not seen a single industry representative, negotiation expert or academic say anything different for the past month, and I’m not about to go against […]
My original plan was to write about Polish Presidential elections today, expected to take place in May 2020, despite the calls for its cancellation after the outbreak of the pandemic: COVID-19. The acceleration of the spread of coronavirus, however, have succeeded in drifting my attention to the refugees and migrants. Particularly their survival in the […]
Can participatory democracy be the solution to the EU’s democratic deficit? This seems to be the European Commission’s intention with launching the Conference on the Future of Europe. If this is to work, the Conference must however itself be democratically legitimate. Based on past experiences, Camille Dobler gives four recommendations for citizens’ consultations. Can participatory […]
Within the social sciences, there is an increasing interest in the ways in which the theoretical concepts employed in research and politics contribute to making the objects they are studying.
Public opinion has a central role in the politics of the Eurozone. But how do citizens form their opinions? Joris Melman’s original research indicates that opinions on the euro are often embedded in more general political orientations. For most people, the euro is above all a practical artefact in their daily lives, which makes them […]
As many better scholars than me have noted, it’s hard not to get caught up in a social panic. Just I’ve written many posts about “why is anyone thinking about anything but Brexit?”, so I now get to read endless materials about how coronavirus is the only thing that matters. Yesterday’s budget is a case […]
Maybe it’s the coronavirus, maybe it’s the floods, maybe it’s the excitement around the Prime Minister’s engagement/child-to-be, but we seem to have largely given up talking about Brexit any more. Sure, there’s debate if you want it, tucked away in the Westminster/Brussels bubble and deep in the inside sections of the paper, but it’s a […]
On 20-21 February 2020, European Union heads of state met for a special European Council, dedicated to the EU long-term budget for 2021-2027. It ended without a political agreement; soon, another summit will take place for further negotiations. Today I will not write about what why the EU’s long-term budget (2021-2027) did not go through; […]