integration

Tackling the ongoing European ‘polycrisis’ has been complicated by the lack of a consensus between the Member States and among European citizens about the role they want the European Union (EU) to play, its tasks and its future. A Union that has...

Germany has been at the heart of European integration since Chancellor Adenauer’s commitment to “Westbindung” in the early 1950s. In the 2010s it has become the European Union’s (EU) indispensable power. Indispensability has placed...

One of the main reasons for the Common Security and Defence Policy’s (CSDP) limited capacity to act are diverging beliefs within the European Union (EU) concerning the use of military force. Particularly, the contrast between the current German...

EU agencies play an important role in shaping European policies. This is also reflected in the academic discourse, which in recent years has scrutinised a wide variety of aspects of EU agencies - in different ways. This article assesses the current,...

Cooperation in the Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP) has recently produced a remarkable dynamism when looking at the newly established Military Planning and Conduct Capability, the European Defence Fund and the Permanent Structured...

It was for the European Semester 2017/2018 that the European Commission included the European Pillar of Social Rights for the first time after its proclamation. In this framework, the Social Scoreboard, which accompanies the pillar, has the...

Europeanization processes take also place in countries of the Eastern Partnership which do not have an accession perspective. However, the European Union supports actively the transformation of the postsoviet states and stimulates democracy,...

On 6 December 2017, the European Commission presented a roadmap to develop the Economic and Monetary Union further, which includes the establishment of a European Monetary Fund and the new post of a European Minister of Economy and Finance. In the...

The migration movements in recent years have aggravated the continuing weaknesses of the Common European Asylum System. In particular, the member states located at the external borders of the European Union have largely been left alone with their...

With the proposal for the next multiannual financial framework (MFF) 2021-2027 of 2 May 2018, the European Commission opened a difficult negotiation process that is crucial for the future of the Euro- pean Union. In addition to the controversy over...

The party politicisation of European integration in the German Bundesrat remains largely in the dark due to the missing documentation of the federal states’ voting behaviour in the plenary sessions. For an empirically informed analysis, this...

This article addresses the issue of rule implementation and compliance in models of external differenti- ated integration. Since rules and their proper implementation are the basis of the European Union’s flexible integration arrangements, any...

Following the so-called refugee crisis, several Schengen states opted for the reintroduction of border controls. The mere fact that such checks were not just appropriate but equally lawful was beyond doubt when the new German federal government took...

The results of the Italian parliamentary elections of March 4th, 2018, triggered lasting uncertainty in the European Union: initially, because of unclear majorities that resulted in three months of a “hung parliament” until the formation of the...

The Brexit referendum in June 2016 rekindled the discussion about the future of European integration, leading to a number of initiatives by different European actors. This article sums up the state of the current reform debate, showing that so far,...

Emmanuel Macron has presented a number of speeches on the future of the EU which point to a fundamental change of paradigm in the French presidential discourse on the EU. For the first time, a French president tries to translate his domestic role of...

This article presents the global movements, trends and actors driving EU-Turkey relations: namely, the global shift of power, the declining liberal international order and the rise of authoritarianism, populism, the new US foreign policy under Trump...