integration

Since 2012, EU citizens can use the European Citizens’ Initiative (ECI) to invite the European Commission to propose a legal act on matters, where they consider EU regulation necessary. Considerable practical problems in the ECI process, both for...

Germany and France have pushed forward security and defense cooperation during the last months. Bilaterally, they agreed on a wide range of future armament cooperation and multilaterally, they gave momentum to the long dormant process of Permanent...

The article sheds light upon the position of the European Parliament and the German Bundestag during the negotiations on the Multiannual Financial Framework 2014-2020 (MFF), as both parliamentary levels play a formal role in the budgetary process....

On 1 March 2017, President Jean-Claude Juncker presented the “White Paper on the Future of Europe” with five scenarios for the development until 2025. The aim of the Commission was to stimulate and structure a broad public debate. In addition,...

The article discerns the impact of the new 2016 Global Strategy for the European Union’s Foreign and Security Policy (EUGS) on the EU’s evolving strategy towards Central Asia and the South Caucasus, two key regions proximate to the EU. The EU...

The Area of Freedom, Security and Justice is characterised by a slow process of communitarisation, a fast expanding acquis communautaire and a high degree of flexibility and differentiation. This article aims at explaining the basic principles and...

There has been a connection between Scottish independence and Europe for decades. In 1988, the SNP introduced its slogan “Independence in Europe”. However, recent constitutional, political and European developments led to the present situation...

The euro crisis has shown that the common currency has major design flaws. Therefore, efforts have been made in recent years to strengthen the institutions of the euro area and to better prepare it against future crises. Emmanuel Macron, who won the...

Various models have been proposed to make the European Union (EU) more flexible. The Brexit makes the model of concentric circles attractive, but it remains unsettled how such a flexibilisation can be embedded in the political structure. If we...

The article categorizes political proposals and scientific concepts of flexible integration using a two- directional and multidimensional concept of EU (dis-)integration. Causalities for (dis-)integration as- sumed by the theories of European...

The French presidential elections open a window of opportunity for French European policy and for the European Union. Against the rising tide of Euroscepticism in France, Emmanuel Macron was able to win this electoral contest with an openly...

Flexibility within the EU is often judged as a possibility to foster integration and to overcome stagna- tion. This text in contrast takes a more pessimistic position and argues from a theoretical and empiric perspective that many forms of...

Since the beginning of the process of European integration, policy-makers and scholars alike keep facing an ever-resurging question: Which states take part in which kind of expansion and extension of the common (West-)European construction? Along...

Faced with a series of fundamental crises, the EU actually appears significantly constrained in its capacity to act. The causes for this situation are seen in recent transformations within the Union, overlapping and reinforcing each other. The core...