integration

Disputes between a foreign investor and a host country arising out of governmental meas­ures regarding foreign investments have been resolved by intergovernmental arbitration for several decades. Triggered by TTIP, investor-state dispute settlement...

The creation of the European Stability Mechanism and the Fiscal Compact in 2012 was intended to stabilise the Euro zone permanently. In the public debate, both institutions represent different concepts of the Economic and Monetary Union: On one...

The first year of Jean-Claude Juncker’s presidency of the European Commission has now passed. With reference to the institution’s history, its current political environment and its internal organization, this article provides a preliminary...

Even though the topic of European identity was intensively discussed following the Treaty of Maastricht, it hardly receives attention today. That is not without reason. The European Union faces not just a number of crises, but it is threatened by...

The pre-eminent issue in British European policy since the general elections returned a Conservative majority government in May 2015 is the ‘in-or-out’ referendum on Britain’s European Union membership which will take place before the end of...

Despite the deteriorating relations between Russia and the West during the past years, the author supports a European perspective of Russia. The country is an essential part of European politics, economy and culture. But being an integral part of...

The relationship between the European Union and Russia has reached a new low in the course of the ongoing Ukraine crisis. The question of how Europe should behave in this crisis vis-à-vis Russia is still under debate between politicians and...

The article raises the questions whether the European Union can - according to its own claim - profile itself as a liberalising force in the WTO, and if the Union can enforce its specific interests in the WTO agenda setting. Special focus is put on...

The deep crisis in the euro zone influenced the recent reform of European cohesion policy for the funding period 2014-2020. The policy has to obey the constraints of tight budgets. The Commission reacted to this challenge by implementing new...

Although EU enlargement policy is of utmost strategic importance for the European Union, it is not being shown the necessary attentiveness by the European public, which has its eyes set on internal crises. This has created the impression amongst the...

The office of the High Representative was created in order to increase the visibility and the coherence of EU external relations. Based on foreign policy statements, this article analyses to what extent the first High Representative after the Lisbon...

Greece elected a new government on January 25, 2015, led by SYRIZA, a radical leftist party, which formed a coalition with ANEL, a populist rightist party. SYRIZA had promised during the election campaign that it will offer the Greeks, who have been...