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Irregular migration in the European Union (EU) dominates the current EU political agenda. It is also the top concern of European citizens, according to the latest Standard Eurobarometer (Spring 2019). EU member states, however, are not affected to the same degree, resulting in political friction with regard to how to deal with the challenges of […]

Since 2018, Italy and Malta have restricted access to their ports for NGO migrant rescue vessels. While both countries have faced criticism for this policy, it should be noted that since the 1990s, most EU member states have erected barriers along their borders to prevent irregular migration. There is, therefore, a degree of hypocrisy in […]

In September 2020, the European Commission published a new ‘Pact on Migration and Asylum’ aimed at addressing the issue of irregular migration in the EU. This article argues that the proposed measures will not help alleviate migration pressure on the EU’s southern member states. On 23 September 2020, the European Commission presented its much-awaited ‘New […]

In this blog post, Chris Lord reflects on lessons from PLATO for doctoral supervision. As an international, cross-disciplinary and cross-sectoral PhD network, PLATO has created an unusual opportunity to compare supervision practice. But its innovative supervision arrangements and collaborative nature have also placed unusual demands on supervisors and PhD researchers. PLATO is an Innovative Training […]

Differing political cultures and migration traditions among EU member states have given rise to a variety of national policy approaches toward irregular migration. While in principle this diversity hinders agreement on common asylum and migration policies, EU member states are now increasingly converging toward more restrictive migration policies. National policy approaches are deeply rooted in […]

It was in the early hours of that Friday 13 December 2019 that we learnt the results of the third general election in four years: the Tories had won a landslide, with an 80-seat majority. England had turned predominantly blue. It wasn’t so much a shock that the Tories had won – Labour was trailing […]

Covid-19 has once again put EU solidarity to the test. While much of the focus has been on the pandemic’s impact on healthcare and the European economy, it has also pushed states further apart on the issue of irregular migration. Prior to the Covid-19 outbreak, the issue of irregular migration had been at the top […]

Although hard to believe now, for most of the UK’s five decades as a member of the European Union, Britain didn’t want to leave. On the contrary, most Brits wanted us to stay. What’s the proof of that? Well, apart from polling over the years, look at governments and general elections. From 1959 to 2016, every UK government and […]

Welcome to my Ideas on Europe blog! Despoina Kotsi, Lawyer, Ph.D. candidate in Public Law (NKUA) The title of my blog deeply reflects the operational obligation of a delicate activity on the part of judicial functionaries just like the performance of Muses. Thus, Clio was approximately the “Proclaimer,” Euterpe the “Well Pleasing,” Thalia the “Blooming,” […]

The European Union (EU) budget is about one percent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of all Member States amounting to about €240 per annum, per citizen. The EU budget redistributes more than €150 billion annually. These funds are directed towards agriculture and regional policy, which operate to help less developed countries and local communities. […]