integration

Purpose narratives play an important role in the legitimization of the European Union (EU). Three goals attributed to the EU have been especially prominent: inner peace, prosperity and self-assertion on the world stage. However, all three can only...

The executive of the European Union (EU) is currently led by two Presidents: the President of the European Commission and the President of the European Council. This double Presidency is the result of a compromise between the supranational and the...

The European Commission's “Fit for 55” package of July 2021 provides for a significant increase in renewable energy and energy efficiency targets in the European Union (EU). However, the EU’s competences in the energy sector are severely...

The European Union (EU) invests huge resources in overcoming the pandemic crisis and does so as a learning system: The Union learned lessons from the previous, the financial, economic and state debt crisis after 2008, in many ways. The EU assumes...

This article scrutinizes the impact of the widely criticized PSPP-judgement of the Federal Constitutional Court (FCC) on the Union´s legal order. It shows that the European Commission´s opening of an infringement procedure was inevitable due to...

In its judgment of 5 May 2020, the German Federal Constitutional Court (FCC) has held that the Public Sector Purchase Programme (PSPP) of the European Central Bank (ECB), which started in 2015, and the relevant decision of the European Court of...

In February 2021, the European Commission came up with “a new Agenda for the Mediterranean” (new Agenda). After the latest review of the European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP) in 2015, a new strategy had been expected for some time. Which aspects,...

In the summer of 2020, Franco-Turkish relations deteriorated dramatically. Since then, Paris has accused Ankara of deliberately influencing the Turkish diaspora in France in order to undermine the values of the French Republic. In terms of foreign...

The article takes stock of the consequences which the decisions of the German Federal Constitutional Court (FCC) concerning the Public Sector Purchase Programme (PSPP) of the European Union (EU) have had on the relation between EU law and the German...

Design and adoption of common social policy is conditional. Limited competencies, institutional and organizational heterogeneity among member states, and ideological-programmatic majorities in the institutions of the European Union (EU) have led to...

In this article, the author contrasts the experience of the Convention on the Future of Europe 2002-2003 with the mandate for the Conference on the Future of Europe which commenced on May 9, 2021. He criticises that the Conference is deprived of...

The paper looks at the challenges Brexit poses for EU studies as well as European politics. It discusses the exit of the UK from the European Union as a ‘wicked problem’ and the Brexit negotiations as tightly coupled ‘multi-level games’. By...

Parliamentary cooperation has long been a stepchild of the Franco-German relationship, but the creation of the Franco-German Parliamentary Assembly (FGPA) in 2019 has closed this gap: For the first time, a separate parliamentary body monitors the...

Did the Covid-19 crisis prompt a turn in German EU policy? Investigating the long-term development of German preferences on the European integration of core state powers, we find striking continuity. German governments persistently seek to minimise...

Donald Trump’s presidency has substantially undermined the transatlantic partnership, leading to an erosion of trust by many Europeans. These concerns have led to a debate in the European Union (EU) about its role in the world and its position in...

The COVID-19 pandemic has deeply shaken the European Union (EU) and exacerbated existing prob- lems. How can the EU gain more autonomy in an ever-changing world order, especially when it comes to international supply chains and health security? To...

This article analyses the concept of compulsory but flexible “solidarity” within the new migration and asylum pact of the European Union (EU). Presented by the European Commission in September 2020, the pact interlinks EU asylum and return...

This article analyses the most important issues and decisions of the German EU Council Presidency, but also its “leftovers”. Almost beyond expectations, the German Government proved to be a successful mediator and honest broker for viable...

On 1 January 2021, Portugal took over the rotating Presidency of the Council of the European Union for the fourth time. The preceding German Presidency was able to broker agreements on crucial topics such as the EU budget, Brexit and the new EU...

The problem of democratic backsliding as well as instruments to protect the rule of law have been acknowledged at the EU level for several years. However, no agreement on the introduction of a rule of law conditionality could be reached among the EU...

The difficult negotiations on the multiannual financial framework (MFF) of the European Union have so far been characterised by continuity and path dependencies. Now, the COVID-19 pandemic has changed the framework, the conditions, the topics and...

The article explores some legal issues regarding comprehensive trade and mixed agreements of the European Union (EU). The concept of mixed agreements is special to the EU legal order and under strain after the opinion 2/15 of the Court of Justice of...

Sanctions are one of the toughest and most coercive tools available to the European Union (EU). They are increasingly used in order to respond to breaches of international norms and adverse security developments in the neighbourhood and beyond....