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Franco-German Leadership in the post-Brexit and post-Merkel EU

Ulrich Krotz and Lucas Schramm (European University Institute) On Sunday, the German people go to the polls in national elections that will determine who will be the next Chancellor. Yet in the election campaign there has been very little discussion about the European Union, despite the fact that German leadership in Europe, in concert with France,…
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States of Emergency: The Humanitarian Crisis on the EU-Belarus Border

Magdalena Smieszek (Central European University) There is a quote attributed to Newton that “we build too many walls, and not enough bridges.” The truism remains regardless of origins. It is walls, psychological and legal if not outright physical, that a certain set of migrants, often of the Muslim variety, meet at the European borders. As…
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Event Report: Cross-Border Data Protection After Brexit

Ian Cooper (DCU Brexit Institute) On 16 September 2021, the DCU Brexit Institute hosted an event on “Cross-Border Data Protection After Brexit”, convened in cooperation with the DCU Law Research Centre and the Cross Border Data Protection Network, funded under the ESCR-IRC UK-Ireland Networking Grant.  After an introduction by Prof. Federico Fabbrini, Director of the…
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The State of the Off-Balance Union

Andrew Duff (former UK MEP) While the European Union lacks several essential characteristics of a federal union, notably a government, it does not lack federalist pretension. Taking on some of the appurtenances of the United States of America comes easily enough to the leadership of the European Commission and Parliament who otherwise remain frustrated by…
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‘Pax Transatlantica’ After Kabul

Michael Cox (LSE) Back in early April 2021, I wrote a blog for the Brexit Institute in which I assumed there would be no fundamental change in the West’s policy towards Afghanistan. I was not alone in doing so. Indeed, the consensus then seemed to be  that the costs of remaining  were bearable, the risks…
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The Limits to Creativity and Flexibility: Responding to the UK ‘Command Paper’ on the Northern Ireland Protocol

Niall Moran (Dublin City University) On July 21, the UK government published its Command Paper seeking fundamental change to the rules governing trade in goods and the “overarching institutional framework” of the Protocol on Ireland/ Northern Ireland. Later that day, Commission Vice-President Maros Ševčovič clarified in a statement that the EU is not willing to…
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The Delicate Equilibrium of the UK Data Protection Adequacy Decision: First Tensions

Edoardo Celeste (Dublin City University) Upcoming DCU Brexit Institute Event: Cross-Border Data Protection After Brexit, September 16-17, in association with the Cross-Border Data Protection Network. For more information and to register, see here.  Data protection is continuing to be a destabilizing factor in the roller-coaster relationship between the EU and the UK. Less than two…
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100 Years of Partition: The NI Protocol and the Irish Question

Orlaith Rice (University College Dublin) The UK’s decision to leave the EU has inadvertently put the question of Irish (re)unification back on the table, 100 years after the island was partitioned. The Protocol on Ireland/Northern Ireland (NI Protocol) de facto keeps Northern Ireland (NI) in the EU single market. Trade between NI and the rest…
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The Brexit Trilemma and Northern Irish Unionists: A very British matter

Sebastian Ludwicki-Ziegler (University of Stirling) The debate on how to address the border question in Northern Ireland is much older than Brexit. However, since the Brexit referendum, this fight over where to put a border and whether to have one has been reignited. The choices made by the British government but also by Northern Irish…
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Human Rights and the Ireland/Northern Ireland Protocol

Brian Gormally (Committee on the Administration of Justice) Violent political conflict always means a bonfire of human rights. Conflict on this island has been no exception. Amidst many atrocities committed by state and non-state actors, my organisation, the Committee on the Administration of Justice (CAJ) was founded in 1981 to keep the hope of a…
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Searching for the Silver Lining

Patricia Mindus (Uppsala University) Brexit impacted ‘one of the major achievements of EU integration’: the citizenry of the Union. It shrunk in size, changed in composition, with some of its parts becoming particularly exposed, such as those who have relied on free movement in making their life choices. Many Europeans have seen their residence rights…
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Brexit and Northern Ireland: A role for the US?

Mary C. Murphy (University College Cork) Since the early days of the Troubles, the US has maintained a keen interest in Northern Ireland affairs and US soft power arguably played a role in mediating the conflict. As Brexit (and other domestic issues) appear stuck and seemingly irresolvable, the time may be ripe for the US…
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The evolution of economic anxiety across the Brexit debate

Francesco Carbonero (Fondazione CRC/University of Turin), Jeremy Davies (East Village Consultants), Ekkehard Ernst (ILO), Sayantan Ghosal (Adam Smith Business School), and Leaza McSorley (University of Sunderland) Shocks and uncertainty are on the rise again. After the 2008 global financial crisis, automation and the rise of the gig economy, a revival of populism and nationalism, Brexit…
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The European Parliament to halt Hungary’s state-sponsored discrimination

Renáta Uitz (Central European University) The European Parliament adopted a resolution on July 8, 2021 in response to the Hungarian law that, among others, prohibits the propaganda of homosexuality in media and in education. The new law received considerable attention in Europe, triggering condemnation from both European constitutional actors and several national governments. The Parliament…
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An Evolutionary Explanation of the Next Generation EU Plan

Carlo Garbarino (Bocconi University) The funds of the Next Generation EU plan (“NGEU”), amounting to EUR 750 billion and financed through a debt issue, are now being made available to Member States. The European Council of 17-21 July 2020 had endorsed the agreement of national governments and stated that the Commission shall be empowered in…
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The Legality of the Protocol

Rory Montgomery (Queen’s University Belfast/ Trinity College Dublin) The Ireland/Northern Ireland Protocol remains deeply contentious in Northern Ireland, though fortunately since April opposition to it has not contributed to violence. Unionists continue to demand either its abolition, or, at a minimum, a major alteration in its treatment of the movement of goods between Great Britain…
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