Latest Blog Posts

This post originally appeared on the UK in a Changing Europe website. The return of Boris Johnson and Dominic Cummings to Number 10 has seen a significant ramping-up of the British rhetoric on the negotiations around the future partnership with the EU. That’s not merely meant stronger words about refusing an extension of the talks, […]

by Costanza Marcellino On 26 March the Joint Statement adopted by members of the European Council contained firm demands for a coordinated exit strategy, a comprehensive recovery plan and an unprecedented level of investment. It invited both the Presidents of the European Council and Commission, in consultation with the other institutions, and particularly the European Central Bank […]

Sometimes it takes the extreme and sudden loss of something to fully appreciate its true value. When Home Secretary, Priti Patel, gleefully told her Tory faithful at the party’s annual conference last October that she was going to “end free movement of people once and for all” she could hardly have had any idea just […]

The socio-economic effects of the coronavirus requires a massive and coordinated response from the EU. So far, the EU has not been up to the challenge, argues Marco Dani and Agustín José Menéndez.   The coronavirus pandemic has deepened and radicalised a set of crises that the European Union postponed but did not solve in […]

by Chiara Russo On Friday 17th April 2020, little more than one month after the WHO declared COVID-19 a pandemic, the European Parliament approved the freeing up of €3.08 billion to support member states’ healthcare systems during this time of crisis. The financing of this action is to come entirely from EU budget. The EP and the Council […]

In the Netherlands, the public underestimates how much Southern Europe has already suffered. And how we benefited ourselves, says Joris Melman, analysing the Dutch stance in the negotiations on the EU’s economic responses to the corona crisis. The Dutch stance in the EU negotiations about the economic response to the corona crisis has sparked criticism […]

Although European financial regulation directly affects citizens as consumers, it is only to a limited extent exposed to public debate. There has also been widespread criticism that European regulators were too close to the financial sector, both before and after the financial crisis. The EU introduced permanent advisory councils, so-called Stakeholder Groups, to include more […]

With the coronavirus pandemic on our minds, Brexit and the still to be negotiated future relationship between the United Kingdom and the European Union have more or less slipped off the agenda, although it was merely two and a half months ago that the United Kingdom formally left the European Union as a member state. […]

In her impassioned speech to the European Parliament on Thursday, EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen laid out the most ambitious plans in the EU’s history. In response to the devastating Covid-19 pandemic, the President said that: “Europe has done more in the last four weeks than it did in the first four years of […]

by Thomas Ewert Last year’s report by Transparency International EU (TI EU) about asset restitution in Europe showcases what is a rather ‘unequal race’. On the one hand, we have autocrats and officials from non-EU countries attempting to hide their illegally acquired assets (tens of billions of dollars) in the European Union (EU). On the other hand, we […]