Politics & Public Policy

David Irion On 9 September 2024, the world’s press gathered in Brussels. On that day, Mario Draghi, former Italian Prime Minister and previous President of the European Central Bank, presented his eagerly awaited report on “The Future of European Competitiveness”. The publication of the so-called Draghi report was timed to coincide with the start of […]

Marina Cino Pagliarello In the evolving landscape of the global higher education market, higher education institutions (HEIs) have transformed from  ivory towers  into dynamic hubs of innovation and societal engagement. Influenced by technological advancements and the growing complexity of global issues – such as pandemics and climate change – universities now play a crucial role […]

This week’s vote on the Consent motion was unremarkable enough that there was hardly any media coverage in the run-up, even in Northern Ireland itself. Positions had been long-known and the result (a simple majority) was a given, despite the (sometimes long-winded) efforts of some MLAs to convince others. For a mechanism that had raised […]

Maybe it's some kind of Stockholm Syndrome, but since the Tories left office I have not felt the same urge to write about British European policy. Equally possibly, it might be because I feel a bit broken by another government with a lack of clear purpose in this domain. Labour, like their predecessors, seem to be stuck at the point of realising this whole Europe thing might be a bit more complicated than they thought, so extemporise until they can work it all out some more.

Facilitated by the freedom of movement within the European Union (EU), the Erasmus programme established in 1987, and the Bologna Process initiated in 1999, physical intra-European student mobility has become a taken-for-granted aspect of higher education.

The 2024 edition of the European Consortium for Political Research (ECPR) General Conference took place at the University College Dublin, 12-15 August. The section of our ECPR Standing Group on Knowledge Politics and Policies included 10 panels on topics such as knowledge diaspora, higher education, university governance, science diplomacy, and Artificial Intelligence.

Universities not only produce Europe’s intellectual elites and scientific knowledge, but they are also key actors in science diplomacy, regional innovation ecosystems and cultural reproduction. The European Union (EU) is increasingly recognizing this and engages in the steering of European universities, for example through its funding programmes.

EUHealthGov held its fourth Practitioner Perspective on 11th July 2024. We were delighted to host Gloria Ghéquière, Advisor in the Cabinet of the Belgian Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Social Affairs and Public Health, Frank Vandenbroucke, to discuss the work done on health by the Belgian Presidency of the European Council between January and June 2024.

How can we explain the successes and failures of interest groups in the European Union (EU) when they choose to litigate in the digital field, bottom-up? On 2 May 2024, a group of academics and early-stage researchers gathered in Science Po Grenoble - UGA to try and find an answer to the question above, to open a wider conversation on the emerging issues of litigation at a time of digital transformation, and even more broadly, to discuss the future direction of EU (digital) law.

In March, I decided to apply for a UACES Microgrant to receive funding to attend the 12th Biannual Conference of the ECPR Standing Group on the European Union, which took place between June 19th and 21st, 2024, in Lisbon at the Universidade NOVA.   The SGEU Biannual Conference, a significant event for those working in […]