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Giovanni Zaccaroni (University of Milan Bicocca) Giorgia Meloni scored a large victory in the Italian general elections on Sunday. This, in light of the absolute majority she secured at both chamber the general election, will likely grant her in the coming week free passage to Palazzo Chigi (the grand palace that is the seat of…

Niccolò Ruffin  On Sunday, September 25, Italian voters made their decision: the center-right coalition, led by “Fratelli d’Italia” leader Giorgia Meloni, will have a large majority in the two chambers of Parliament. The majority, that will most likely go on to form a government in the coming weeks, includes within it three different European political…

Andrew Duff  Boris Johnson and Ursula von der Leyen have both laid bold claims to having got Brexit done, inoculated people against Covid-19 and come to the rescue of Ukraine against Russian invasion. Well, we know, more or less, what happened to Johnson. Von der Leyen, still standing, made her latest justification in the ‘state…

Maria Patrin (University of Florence) On 14 September 2022, like every year, the European Commission’s President Ursula Von der Leyen delivered her State of the Union speech in front of the European Parliament. This year, however, the speech was particularly awaited, as it took place against the background of soaring energy prices, the ongoing war in…

Ian Cooper (Dublin City University) The appointment of Liz Truss as the new UK Prime Minister is an indication that there is unlikely to be any softening of the hard-line position previously taken by Boris Johnson on post-Brexit relations with the EU. It was Liz Truss who, as Johnson’s Foreign Secretary, had personally championed the…

Eoin Micheál McNamara (University of Tartu) eoin.mcnamara@ut.ee  Russia’s expansive military assault on Ukraine beginning on February 24 2022 has been devastating for security in Europe. As all European Union (EU) and North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) member states re-evaluate their security arrangements, Finland and Sweden have taken landmark decisions to join NATO. Applying for NATO…

Beatrice Monciunskaite (DCU) & Niels Kirst (DCU) Introduction The rule of law crisis in the European Union (EU) entered a new phase in 2022. The affirmation of the Conditionality Regulation by the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) in February 2022 dealt a powerful blow to populist efforts in the Member States, especially…

Donnacha Ó Beacháin (Dublin City University) Throughout its history the European Union has responded to major geopolitical events. A desire to reduce the likelihood of renewed conflict following the Second World War provided the impetus for establishing the European Coal and Steel and Community while enlargement from 12 member states in 1992 to 28 members…

Théo Fournier (European University Institute) Last Sunday’s second round of French legislative elections produced an historical outcome. Never since the beginning of the French fifth Republic (1958) had a freshly re-elected president failed to win a majority in the National Assembly. There have been moments when the President had to face a hostile National Assembly…

Ian Cooper (DCU Brexit Institute) On Thursday 16 June 2022, the Jean Monnet Centre of Excellence REBUILD and the DCU Brexit Institute held an event on “Economic Governance in the EU after the Conference on the Future of Europe.” It consisted a panel discussion chaired by Federico Fabbrini (Professor of EU Law & Founding Director,…

Théo Fournier (European University Institute) Description of the electoral system  On Sunday, French citizens will vote in the second round of the elections for the National Assembly, the lower house of the French Parliament. Legislative elections are a major event in French politics. The National Assembly is indeed the lower house of the parliament: it…

Christy Ann Petit (DCU Brexit Institute) On 1st of June, the European Commission concluded that Croatia was ready to be the 20th Member State to join the Eurozone and adopt the euro on 1st January 2023.  This announcement was made following the parallel publication of two reports assessing the convergence of non-euro area Member States, with…

Neale Richmond (TD for Dublin Rathdown) NOTE: On June 16, Neale Richmond will speak at the upcoming DCU Brexit Institute/REBUILD Centre event, “Economic Governance in the EU after the Conference on the Future of Europe”. Please register here.  As we move into the post-Covid-19 era and into a time of great uncertainty, from war in…

Ben Rosher (Queen’s University Belfast) The Northern Ireland/Ireland Protocol and the Irish border One of the central negotiating objectives of both the UK and EU during the Brexit process was to avoid the reintroduction of a hard border on the island of Ireland. There are many reasons for this, including geographic, economic, sociological and political…

Ian Cooper (DCU Brexit Institute) Yesterday, Boris Johnson prevailed against a challenge to his leadership of the Conservative party and maintained his position as Prime Minister of the UK. What does this result mean for the future relations between the UK and the European Union (EU) and Ireland? And what does it mean for the…

Kevin O’Sullivan (DCU) In 2019, the European Union adopted its Copyright and Related Rights in the Digital Single Market Directive (CDSM) aimed at updating the European copyright acquis for the opportunities and challenges of the digital economy. Controversial from the outset, article 17 of the CDSM in particular has stirred a hornet’s nest because of…

Andreja Pegan (University of Primorska) On Friday, 13th May 2022 a new parliamentary term commenced in the Slovenian National Assembly after April’s general elections. The Slovenian Democratic Party (SDS), the party of Janez Janša lost, while keeping its vote share steady. The election was welcomed by EU Rule of Law advocates (much like the previous Czech…

Oran Doyle (Trinity College Dublin) The International Association of Constitutional Law hosted a blog symposium in 2020 on the constitutional dimensions of Irish unification. The Belfast / Good Friday Agreement of 1998 provides that Irish unification will occur if consent is democratically and concurrently given, both in Northern Ireland and in Ireland. A referendum would…

Niall Moran (DCU) The results of the May 2022 Northern Ireland Assembly election were a historic outcome and a positive one for supporters of the Protocol on Ireland and Northern Ireland. Sinn Féin topped the poll, a first for a nationalist party in Northern Ireland. The centrist Alliance Party increased their first preference vote share…