integration

The Council presidency during the first semester of 2022 provided France and president Emmanuel Macron with a window of opportunity to promote its own European policy agenda and to convince a more Eurosceptic French population of the benefits of...

The term “fiscal dominance” refers to a regime in which a central bank is no longer free to pursue its monetary policy objectives because high fiscal deficits and debt levels are inhibiting an effective inflation control. This analysis discusses...

This article analyses how and to what extent a new guiding narrative of European integration manifests itself in recent self-portrayals of the European Union (EU) as a guarantor of security and protection. This image creates and reproduces specific...

On 29 August 2022, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz gave a long-awaited speech at Charles University in Prague that provides an important point of reference for the future European policy course of the incumbent coalition government after 16 years of...

The European Union (EU) constitutes an area of freedom, security and justice in which the citizens of the Union are to be guaranteed freedom of movement without internal borders. At the same time, it is emphasised that the prevention and combating...

At international climate conferences, the European Union (EU) and its member states both are negotiating partners. The EU signs the treaties to protect the climate, the member states ratify and translate them into national policy. Based on the...

This article analyses the European Union’s (EU) internal security policy as a core element of the Area of Freedom, Security and Justice (AFSJ) established by the Treaty of Amsterdam in the 1990s. In official EU internal security documents, the...

The COVID-19 pandemic and previous cross-border health crises have fostered European integration. The article provides a neofunctionalist explanation of the medium- to long-term deepening of the European Union (EU) in the field of public health...

Europe is facing many challenges, both from the outside, such as migration, and from within, through increasing organised crime or terrorist attacks. At the same time, the tug-of-war between nation-state sovereignty and European actors leads to a...

Relations between the European Union (EU) and Turkey have been highly topical in recent years. Growing hostilities, political turmoil and verbal skirmishes have kept this partnership in the limelight and aroused heated discussions in academic,...

There is currently momentum to put the European Union's (EU) enlargement policy as a whole to the test and, where necessary, to fundamentally reform it. This article aims to identify, contextualise and analyse the relevant points of reference in...

The United Kingdom’s exit from the European Union (EU) in January 2020 marks a historic milestone in the European integration process. For the first time since its foundation the EU faces the existential question if the specific domestic political...

The principle of “degressive proportionality” in European elections ensures that even the smallest member states are adequately represented in the European Parliament. However, it is detrimental to transnational electoral equality: votes cast in...

After having played a minor role in European politics for a long time, national parliaments were empowered to “guardians of subsidiarity” under the Lisbon Treaty. This article scrutinizes whether they have succeeded in influencing European Union...

In view of numerous contributions, and especially on the occasion of Angela Merkel’s last participation in a meeting of the European Council in October 2021, this contribution analyzes the work and effects of the former Chancellor on European...

The European treaties assign goals and tasks to the European Union that sometimes do correspond to the conferral of a very limited competence by the member states. Using the corona crisis as an example, the text highlights the problematic nature of...

Since the fraudulent presidential elections in Belarus in August 2020, the country has been in the midpoint of a geopolitical stand-off. Unprecedented violence against peaceful protesters, economic and political sanctions against the regime in Minsk...

The tandem system provides a frame for the election of the European Parliament paying due tribute to the European level of the event. It invites Europarties to contest the election with power, visibility and influence. The system proceeds in three...

Relations with China are of high priority in the context of the European Union’s (EU) foreign policy. They reflect strengths and weaknesses of the EU as an actor in international relations. Regarding the issue of coherence in European foreign...

Since the 2010s, severe crises have hit the European Union (EU) approximately every five years: first the financial and euro crisis, then the migration crisis and Brexit, and last (but certainly not least) the COVID-19 pandemic. The crises have left...

Digital transformation has been accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic. Today, it affects almost all areas of social and economic life. As a cross-cutting issue and solution to specific challenges, it is also increasingly the subject of initiatives at...

The talks that have been resumed for reaching a free trade agreement between the European Union and India have a good chance for success. Both partners, especially India, have to achieve new economic dynamics in order to be able to face the...