Ideas on Europe

Politics & Public Policy

Soft Authoritarian Transformation of Higher Education in Hungary: Taming Academic Freedom with Neoliberal Precarity

Europe of Knowledge |

Zahra Jafarova In the shifting landscape of European higher education, neoliberal reforms used to be celebrated as tools for financial efficiency and institutional autonomy. But how does such a market-oriented framework function when it is instrumentalized by a regime drifting away from democracy towards authoritarianism? In Hungary, the transformation of the university system stands out […]

The boundless mystery of Assimilated EU Law?

Simon Usherwood |

This piece was originally published on the UK in a Changing Europe site.   It’s something of a truism to say that Brexit is a process, not an event, but nowhere is this more evident than in the UK’s continuing difficulties in managing the pieces of legislation it adopted during its time as a member […]

Legitimacy and legacy of the EU’s socio-economic crisis governance during Covid-19

JCMS |

By Marius Guderjan (Centre for British Studies, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin) and Mario Kölling (Department of Political Science, Spanish National Distance Education University) Although the COVID-19 pandemic seems something of the past and meanwhile overshadowed by other crises, we should still remember its profound impact on public health, people, employment and businesses. In 2020, the real […]

From Capital Markets Union to Savings and Investments Union: Why the EU keeps changing the story on financial integration

JCMS |

By David Howarth (University of Luxembourg) and Lucia Quaglia (University of Bologna) Financial market integration has been a core objective of European integration since the 1950s. Over several decades, the European Union (EU) has adopted hundreds of legislative acts aimed at removing barriers to cross-border finance and harmonising the regulation and supervision of capital markets. […]

New year, same old UK-EU relations?

Simon Usherwood |

I notice it’s been some six months since my last post here, which reflects on both the new pace of UK-EU relations and the lack of anything useful to add to the debate. I did bestir myself to write about the return of finance-based framing back in November, as various people noticed this was a […]

Revisiting what problems the EU AI Act is actually solving

Europe of Knowledge |

Bao-Chau Pham When the European Union‘s Artificial Intelligence Act finally entered into force on 1 August 2024, it was widely described as a landmark: the world’s first comprehensive framework for regulating AI. Throughout the policy-making process from early 2018 onwards, much of the debates focused on how the Act regulates – its risk categories and […]

Higher education institutions for Europe: A territorial perspective

Europe of Knowledge |

Alina Felder-Stindt The European Union’s ambition to become a knowledge-based economy has transformed the role of higher education institutions (HEIs). My new book, The Territorial Dimension of EU Knowledge Policies: Higher Education Institutions for Europe (Routledge, 2025), explores how universities are not only shaped by European integration but also actively shape it, particularly through their […]

Austerity and support for the euro

JCMS |

By Nicola Nones (Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy at the University of Toronto) and Melle Scholten (Department of Public Administration at the University of Twente) The Eurozone crisis and the subsequent implementation of austerity measures in various member states of the union was in many ways a watershed moment for contemporary populism. […]

Anatomy of a Stalemate: Why the EU-UK Youth Mobility Plan Hit a Brick Wall

JCMS |

By Monika Brusenbauch Meislová (Masaryk University, Czech Republic), Julie Smith (Cambridge University, UK) and Ed Turner (Aston University, UK) As we discuss in our recent article in the Journal of Common Market Studies, a proposed youth mobility scheme between the European Union and the United Kingdom ought to have been an easy win. After all, […]

Beyond Formal Agreements: How EU Agencies Shape Europe’s Reach Beyond Its Borders

JCMS |

By Thibaud Deruelle (European Society for Medical Oncology), Sandra Lavenex and Matis Poussardin (both University of Geneva, Switzerland) When we think of how the European Union (EU) extends its influence beyond its borders, we often picture trade deals or enlargement negotiations. Yet, another quieter—but no less significant—form of cooperation is unfolding through EU agencies. Working […]

Subscribe to Newsletter

UACES, IACES and Ideas on Europe do not take responsibility for opinions expressed in articles on blogs hosted on Ideas on Europe. All opinions are those of the contributing authors. The content is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution - NonCommercial - ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

The map in the Ideas on Europe logo is an abstract map. It does not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of UACES, IACES and Ideas on Europe concerning the legal status of any country, territory, city or area or of its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries.

© UACES 2026