Democracy & Citizenship

On October 25th, Tous Migrants, a French migrant advocacy organization, announced that it had filed an appeal with the European Court of Human Rights concerning the death of Blessing Matthew, a young Nigerian woman who died after crossing the Franco-Italian border. This appeal is based in part on new evidence in the case that came to light in an investigation by Border Forensics.

For our weekly “Ideas on Europe” editorial by UACES, the University Association for European Studies, we have the pleasure to welcome again Dr Simona Guerra.

For our weekly "Ideas on Europe" editorial by UACES, the University Association for European Studies, we have the pleasure to welcome again Rebecca Dobson Philips, from the University of Sussex, in the UK.

With the rise of right-wing populism in Europe, scholars of EU foreign policy have become increasingly interested in the relationship between populism and foreign policy. Yet, we still know little about what happens to foreign policy institutions when populist parties join governments.

Britain’s Children’s Newspaper – subtitled, ‘The Story of the World Today for the Men and Women of Tomorrow’ – was a remarkable and mature publication for youngsters. On 8 October 1938, with dark clouds of war looming, the newspaper ran a visionary editorial describing Europe as ‘one Brotherhood’ with a ‘common interest which binds its […]

Prince Harry, Sir Elton John and Liz Hurley are among a group of celebrities suing the Daily Mail publishers, Associated Newspapers, for what they describe as “abhorrent criminal activity”. Their legal action claims they have “compelling and highly distressing evidence” that they have been “victims” of  “gross breaches of privacy by Associated Newspapers”. The group […]

Conservatives, have you forgotten what your party in power used to stand for regarding Europe? For most of the past seven decades, Tory governments did more than any other to bring us closer to our continent. After all: It’s because of the Conservatives that the UK applied to join the European Community in the first […]

The editorial by UACES, the University Association for European Studies and EUradio, looks at the parliamentary elections in Italy on Sunday. We welcome Dr Malin Stegmann McCallion, from the University of Karlstad, in Sweden.

Should Europe be seriously worried about the latest developments in Italian politics or simply shrug its shoulders and tick off the forthcoming parliamentary elections as yet another convulsion of a chronically unstable system? I have just received a nice envelop from the Italian Consulate in Paris with all the materials to vote to renew the […]

Although an increasing number of political decisions are taken at the European Union (EU) level, national politics remains the prime arena for democratic debate. This deprives the EU of a key source of democratic legitimacy, while showing how national politics are increasingly 'ruling the void'. In my article for JCMS: Journal of Common Market Studies, I argue that national political parties can provide a solution to both challenges by organisationally linking the national and European levels.