BLOG – European Union Politics

Event Report: Legal & Constitutional Perspectives on the Covid-19 Pandemic

Davide Genini (Dublin City University) On 10 September 2024, the DCU Brexit Institute hosted the Horizon Europe REGROUP and Jean Monnet Post Brexit Law module event titled “Legal & Constitutional Perspectives on the Covid-19 Pandemic”. As Full Professor and Founding Director of the Brexit Institute and DELI, Federico Fabbrini, noted, this event was particularly timely…
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Legal Lessons Learned from the Pandemic

REGROUP Blog-Post on the Best Practices and Key Takeaways for Liberal-Constitutional Democracies after the Covid-19 Pandemic Niels Kirst, Assistant Professor of European Law at Dublin City University, Deputy Director of the DCU Brexit Institute The Covid-19 pandemic constituted a watershed moment for liberal-constitutional democracies globally. While protecting lives comprised the primary objective of decision-makers, it…
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The Shrinking Centre Ground in European Politics

Ronan McCrea (University College London) Change is inevitable in political life. Indeed, the famous Dutch-American political scientist Arend Lijphart showed that the alternation of power between different parties is a key ingredient in the stability of a democratic system. However, unlike today, when elections such as those in France threaten to destabilise key features of…
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The European Political Community: more than a talking shop and a photo op?

Dr Cleo Davies (University of Warwick) The fourth summit of the European Political Community (EPC) was a real success for the UK and for its new prime minister, Keir Starmer. Not only did he use the opportunity to showcase his government’s ambitions to reset the UK’s relations with the EU and Member States, but the…
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Ursula von der Leyen’s Second Term as European Commission President

Andrew Duff (European Policy Centre) Ursula von der Leyen was always equivocal at being marked out as the Spitzenkandidat of the European People’s Party (EPP). She refused to stand as a German CDU candidate for the European Parliamentary elections. Retaining the broad cross-party confidence of national leaders was vital to her chances of being renominated…
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The 2024 French elections: a setback for gender equality in politics

Camille Barbe (Université de Bordeaux) On 7 July 2024, France’s election results surprised commentators as it saw the leftist union (the New Popular Front) defy the opinion polls of the preceding weeks and arrive first place, with 182 seats in the new assembly.  This unexpected defeat for the far-right National Rally party was partly made…
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The Uncertain State of the Rule of Law in the EU

Beatrice Monciunskaite (Dublin City University) In the year that Freedom House reported the 18th consecutive year of democratic decline globally, the rule of law crisis in the European Union entered a new phase. While Poland has begun to rebuild its liberal democratic status after eight years of PiS autocracy, Hungary continues to intimidate EU institutions…
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The external dimension of the New Pact on Migration and Asylum: The discreet presence of an ‘Elephant in the Room’

Dr. Janine Silga (Dublin City University) The political agreement between the European Parliament and the Council reached in December last year on five major instruments of the Pact on Migration and Asylum has been described as ‘historic’. Considering the protracted negotiations of the reform to the Common European Asylum System and especially the so-called ‘Dublin…
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Reviewing ‘Open Strategic Autonomy’ on the eve of the EU elections

Dr. Niall Moran (Dublin City University) The pursuit of ‘open strategic autonomy’ (OSA) has been the defining phrase of EU Commission President Von der Leyen’s tenure on trade. Of course this phrase also goes beyond trade, impacting other themes such as geopolitics, the economy, the environment, and values. We are now in our fifth year of…
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In Ukraine, the future of Europe and Ireland is at stake

Dr. Kenneth McDonagh (Dublin City University) As Russia’s invasion of Ukraine rumbles into its third year, there are a number of worrying gaps emerging in the European response. Military aid, while still flowing, remains below the level required to ensure victory and, recently, even the stalemate has become precarious. Although the recent US approval of…
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Lessons From the Irish and French Constitutional Revision Debates:  Beware of Appearances

Camille Barbe (Université de Bordeaux) In the history of feminist constitutional discourse, March 8, 2024, will go down as a date to remember. While annually, this day celebrates international women’s day, this year it also marked the simultaneous unfolding of constitutional amendment procedures in two European countries, Ireland and France. While both tackled feminist issues,…
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How the EU could support Ukraine – by using Russian state funds

Dr. Jonas J. Driedger (Goethe University Frankfurt) European Commission officials are currently preparing a proposal to support Ukraine through future profits from Russian state funds that are frozen on EU accounts. Despite some legal and political concerns, the officials seem confident and EU leaders will discuss the proposal at the European Council to be held…
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Liberal Europeanist Stubb Becomes the President of Finland

Maarika Kujanen and Tapio Raunio (Tampere University) On 1 March Alexander Stubb, 55, takes office as the 13th president of Finland. Stubb was the candidate of the National Coalition (conservatives) and had previously served as a member of the European Parliament (2004-2008), foreign minister (2008-2011), minister for European affairs and trade (2011-2014), prime minister (2014-2015),…
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Ukraine has Utterly Changed the Politics of EU Enlargement

Iain McMenamin (DCU) No country has ever before fought a war to enter the European Union. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Ukraine’s heroic response, and its President’s inspiring emphasis on Ukraine’s European future, have utterly changed the politics of enlargement. This new politics of enlargement will restart the debate on deepening and widening in the European…
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A Guide to the French Presidential Elections

Théo Fournier (European University Institute) Presentation of the voting systems  This coming Sunday the French population will vote in the first round of the presidential elections. The French presidential elections are a two-round majoritarian system: if no candidate garners more than 50% of the vote during the first round, the two candidates with the largest…
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Vision and Devastation: What Europeans Should Learn from the War in Ukraine

Erik Jones (European University Institute) Of course, there are many lessons that we should all learn from the tragedy unfolding in Ukraine right now – about brutality and violence, but also about solidarity and courage.  None of these lessons are new.  All command our attention.  But one lesson is likely to go overlooked.  That lesson…
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The Rise of Regional Groups in the EU

Ian Cooper (DCU Brexit Institute) Russia’s brutal invasion of Ukraine has highlighted an important development in the politics of the European Union (EU) – the increased activity of regional groups of member states. The invasion provoked strong condemnation not only from the European Union (EU) as a whole (as seen last week’s European Council meeting)…
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The New Dutch Government’s EU Policy: From UK Lite to Germany Lite?

Patrick Bijsmans (Maastricht University) After a record 271 days of negotiations a new Dutch coalition government took office on Monday 10 January. Although, is it really new? The same four parties that formed the previous government – Christian-Democratic CDA, Christian CU, Social-Liberal D66 and Conservative-Liberal VVD – are also in the new government. Yet, it…
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A Guide to the Election of the next Italian President

Piero Tortola (University of Groningen) One topic, besides the ever-present Covid-19, has dominated the Italian public debate over the past few months, namely the election of the next President of the Republic, to succeed incumbent Sergio Mattarella. Voting for the new President will begin on January 24. An event that usually attracts great attention in…
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A Guide to the BRIDGE Network Interactive Maps

Ian Cooper (DCU Brexit Institute) The BRIDGE Network has completed an Interactive Map project that is a visual guide to differentiated governance inside and outside the EU. The project consists of two maps: a map of Internal Differentiation, which shows the differences between the 27 EU member states; and a map of External Differentiation, which…
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Germany: Green Light for a New Majority

Ubaldo Villani-Lubelli (University of Salento) On 28 October 1969, Willy Brandt, the renowned Social Democratic chancellor, stated the idea of Mehr Demokratie wagen (Let’s dare for more democracy) in his inauguration speech. By the presentation of the coalition deal of the new government majority after the general election of 26 September, the reference to Willy…
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Commission v Poland (C-204/21 R): Pulverizing the Primacy of EU Law

Renata Uitz (Central European University) On October 27, 2021 the Vice-president of the Court of Justice (CJEU) imposed a periodic penalty of 1M EUR per day on Poland for failing to suspend the application of various legal provisions regarding the Supreme Court’s Disciplinary Chamber [C-204/21 R], as required by an earlier interim order in the…
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Why a Change in Government Won’t Change Norway’s Ambiguous EU Policy

John Erik Fossum (ARENA, University of Oslo) The election campaign On September 13, 2021 Norway held its parliamentary elections. In Norway, parliamentary elections take place at fixed dates, at a four-year interval. The total number of eligible voters was 3,876,200 persons, and the election turnout was 77.2 percent. The election result represents a certain turn…
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L’esprit de l’escalier of Angela Merkel: Her Last European Council

Andrew Duff  As valedictions go, it was a curious affair. German Chancellor Angela Merkel might be forgiven for expecting more from her 107th and last meeting of the European Council (21-22 October). There was no breakthrough on any of the main items of business.  In a four-hour debate on how to deal with the spike…
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The Polish Constitutional Tribunal Asserts the Primacy of National Constitution over EU Law — In Words with No Legal Force

Renata Uitz (Central European University) After considerable delay, on October 7, 2021 the Polish Constitutional Tribunal rendered its long-awaited ruling in response to Prime Minister Morawiecki’s questions concerning the primacy of EU law in the Polish legal order (K3/21). In response, in a majority decision, the Tribunal asserted the primacy of the Polish Constitution over…
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German Elections Put the EU in Negotiation Limbo

Aaron Burnett Angela Merkel is leaving office after 16 years with huge approval ratings. Expect a wait for German leadership in Europe to return. After 16 crisis-ridden years as Chancellor of Europe’s largest economy, Angela Merkel’s shadow dominated a federal election that saw her Finance Minister—Social Democrat Olaf Scholz—dethrone her centre-right Christian Democrats as Germany’s…
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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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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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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 opportunity of the Slovenian Presidency to the Council of the European Union

Andreja Pegan (Northumbria University/ University of Ljubljana) The EU Slovenian Presidency under the Orban-friendly Janez Jansa is here. That we would see a Jansa led presidency was far from obvious in the preceding months, as the opposition attempted several times to take the helm and form a new government. Despite Jansa’s weak political position with…
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A homophobic law in the EU – What next?

Rita Béres-Deák (Central European University) On June 15th, 2021, the Hungarian Parliament passed the so-called ‘Paedophilia Act’, which bans the ’promotion and portrayal’ of homosexuality and transgender identity to minors, including in education, advertising and the media. Such a law is unprecedented in the EU and runs counter to several EU principles and international human…
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Next Generation EU: Time to Give the EU Fiscal Power

Ubaldo Villani-Lubelli (University of Salento) The Covid-19 pandemic has opened up major challenges concerning the future political and institutional organisation of the European Union. Among the numerous measures taken by the European Union to counter the economic and social effects of Covid-19, two in particular symbolise a line of conflict between the Member States: the…
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The OECD, EU and United States at the Crucible of Global Taxation

Carlo Garbarino (Bocconi University) An initial agreement by the G-7 finance ministers has been reached in London which satisfies a U.S. demand for a minimum corporate tax rate of at least 15 percent on foreign earnings and paves the way for levies on multinationals in countries other than those where they are headquartered. This is…
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A Federal European Public Prosecution Authority – From Vision to Reality?

Jacob Öberg (Örebro University) The European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO), which has just commenced its operation (EPPO Press Release), is a milestone for EU integration (Öberg, 2021). The fashioning of the EPPO has nonetheless been a contested process, encumbered by very complex political negotiations in the midst of a battleground between intergovernmental and supranational visions…
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EU-Swiss Relations – Moving in on their Tipping Point

Charlotte Sieber-Gasser (University of Lucerne) The Swiss government announced on 26th of May 2021 the decision not to sign the institutional framework agreement between the EU and Switzerland due to «remaining substantial differences on key aspects of the agreement». The decision marks the preliminary end to seven years of negotiations over the modernisation of the…
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Saving the BVerfG from itself: the Commission infringement proceedings against Germany and its significance

Federico Fabbrini (DCU Brexit Institute) On 9 June 2021, the European Commission announced that it has started infringement proceedings against Germany in response to the ruling by the Bundesverfassungsgericht (BVerfG) of 5 May 2020 regarding the European Central Bank (ECB) Public Sector Purchase Programme (PSPP). As it is well known, in this ruling Germany’s Federal…
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The Weiss/PSPP story: Being disproportional with proportionality?

Marcus Klamert (University of Graz) On 5 May 2020, the Second Senate of the German Federal Constitutional Court (hereafter “the FCC”) handed down a judgment in a constitutional challenge against the Public Sector Purchase Programme (PSPP) established by the ECB (“PSPP Judgement”). The FCC declared ECB decisions as well as the ECJ judgment in Weiss…
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Coordinated economic sanctions against Belarus? EU foreign policy in action against the Lukashenka regime

Viktor Szép (Hungarian Academy of Sciences) On 23 May, Belarus diverted a Ryanair aircraft passing over its territory flying between Greece and Lithuania in order to arrest journalist Raman Pratasevich. After the poorly worded and much criticized tweet of the EU’s transport commissioner, the EU reacted swiftly and decisively. The day after the incident, Commission…
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Best of Frenemies: The EU-UK Foreign Policy Relationship after Brexit

Richard G. Whitman (University of Kent) The decision by the UK Government not to negotiate on formal terms for an EU-UK foreign, security and defence policy relationship means that the relationship in these areas is progressing on the basis of learning-by-doing. This, of course, does not mean that there is the absence of any relationship.…
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Next Generation EU and the German Federal Constitutional Court – The decision on preliminary injunctions of 15 April 2021

Mattias Wendel (Leipzig University) First things first: the Federal Constitutional Court (Bundesverfassungsgericht – BVerfG) has cleared the way for Germany’s participation in Next Generation EU (NGEU). In its decision of 15 April 2021, published on 21 April 2021, the Court’s Second Senate rejected an application for preliminary injunctions challenging the domestic statute approving the ratification…
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Suing AstraZeneca

Gavin Barrett (University College Dublin) Quietly rumbling away in the background of the Covid-19 crisis are legal proceedings. The European Commission initiated litigation against AstraZeneca in a Brussels courtroom on 28 April. Bringing AstraZeneca to court was backed by all 27 EU states even if some initially vacillated, perhaps fearing that it might induce further…
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Scotland and Europe after the Elections

Kirsty Hughes (Scottish Centre on European Relations) The Scottish elections resulted in a fifteen seat majority for the Scottish National Party and Scottish Greens – with both parties committed to having another independence referendum and to independence in the European Union. Yet Boris Johnson has continued to insist that there should be no discussion of…
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The future of Social Europe without the UK

Paul Copeland (Queen Mary University of London) The EU has a relatively limited competence in employment and social policy, but over the last three decades has managed to harmonise policy in certain key areas, such as health and safety, working conditions, and equal treatment of men and women in the labour market. Progress in reaching…
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The Scottish Election. Does it decide anything?

Michael Keating (University of Aberdeen) The results of the Scottish election confirm that Scotland remains divided down the middle on the question of independence. While the Scottish National Party fell just short of an absolute majority, pro-independence parties (SNP and Greens) won 72 of the 129 seats, with 49 per cent of the vote in…
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Going Forward on Criminal Justice Cooperation post-Brexit

Amanda Kramer (Queen’s University Belfast) and Rachael Dickson (University of Birmingham) Amongst other factors, criminal justice cooperation between EU Member States developed in response to the changing cross-border nature of crime, opening of internal EU borders, and increasing recognition of the value of trading expertise and training. Recognising this value, the UK has (at times…
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Brexit and EU Enlargement Policy

Gëzim Visoka (Dublin City University) The EU’s enlargement policy has been one of the central pillars in managing the relations with surrounding neighbours and a powerful stimulus for extending democratic and economic reforms in countries who currently aspire to join the EU or have a potential perspective in the future. For over a decade, the…
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The Impact of Brexit on the European Single Financial Market

Sven Van Kerckhoven (Brussels School of Governance, Vrije Universiteit Brussel) Brexit has far-reaching consequences for the European single market for financial transactions. In particular in this field, the United Kingdom has had a strong influence as the City of London has acted as the financial hub in Europe for several decades. London was the first…
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Green Light from Karlsruhe: Obstacles to Next Generation EU Removed

Gian Luigi Tosato (Sapienza University) We can now breathe a sigh of relief. The German Constitutional Court promptly delivered its ruling in the desirable way. The urgent appeal – which we had written about in a previous analysis – was rejected, the block to the approval of the EU Own Resources Decision was thus removed…
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Giving Substance to “An Economy that Works for the People”

Christine Neuhold and Fèlix Ruiz Cabré (Maastricht University) In 2019, the then candidate for European Commission President, Ursula von der Leyen, presented her political guidelines for the European executive for the upcoming five years. These guidelines contain six so called ‘headline ambitions.’ These spanned from a European Green Deal, to a ‘Europe fit for the…
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The New EU Fiscal Policy

Michael Breen (Dublin City University) The European Commission is going to borrow nearly 700 billion euro to boost the recovery in Europe through NextGenerationEU, a temporary instrument that will open the door to private capital markets for the first time. This is an important step for the European Union because it helps to address a…
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The Procurement of EU Covid-19 Medical Supplies: Rights and Wrongs of the Joint Procurement Agreements versus Advanced Purchase Agreements

Emma McEvoy and Delia Ferri (Maynooth University) Last month we witnessed the escalation of the EU-UK row over vaccine supplies, namely regarding the distribution of the AstraZeneca vaccines, which was discussed by Glencross in this blog. The tipping point of the row occurred when the European Commission President, Ursula von der Leyen, suggested that the…
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Border Carbon Adjustments – The EU Parliament Resolution

Goran Dominioni (Dublin City University) The European Parliament has adopted a resolution for a carbon border adjustment mechanism (CBAM) to guide the Commission in formulating a proposal in the second quarter of 2021. This blog discusses the essential features of this resolution and argues that the EU Parliament is right in stressing that the design…
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The Northern Ireland Protocol and the Future of the Union

Eileen Connolly and John Doyle (Dublin City University) In our recent working paper on the future relationship between the UK and the EU we argued that the deep divisions in Northern Ireland on its constitutional status will make the Northern Ireland Protocol to the Withdrawal Agreement a constant source of EU-UK friction, even if the…
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Bulgaria’s 4 April Parliamentary Election: The End of Borissov’s Rule?

John O’ Brennan (Maynooth University) Sunday’s parliamentary election in Bulgaria took place against a backdrop of a renewed Covid crisis, the ‘third wave’ of which has produced very high levels of infection and death, and in the wake of sustained protests since last summer against the incumbent government, led by Boiko Borissov and his centre-Right…
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Brexit, Market Adjustment and the Irish Sea

Gerard McCann (St Mary’s University College) John Maynard Keynes observantly noted of European realignment coming out of the Great War, that: “When the final result is expected to be a compromise, it is often prudent to start from an extreme position”. Brandon Lewis, Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, opened the UK Government’s new round…
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The UK-EU Vaccine Spat is an Intra-EU Tussle not an Act of Brexit-Induced Spite

Andrew Glencross (Aston University) The rollout of a variety of effective vaccines against COVID-19 is an incredible scientific success story, but one that is currently overshadowed by an unseemly EU-UK spat over the distribution of this precious resource. In the prelude to the recent European Council summit, it emerged that the EU had exported 21…
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What do the elections tell us about Dutch EU policy?

Rem Korteweg (Clingendael Institute) At first sight, not much will change after last week’s elections in the Netherlands. Mark Rutte’s VVD won the most votes, guaranteeing his fourth consecutive term as the country’s prime minister. It will make Rutte the longest-serving prime minister in the Netherlands, and the longest-serving head of government in the EU,…
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Human Rights and Equality Provisions under the Northern Ireland Protocol

Colin Murray and Clare Rice (Newcastle University) Although much of the focus on the UK-EU Withdrawal Agreement’s Protocol on Ireland/Northern Ireland has been directed towards trade, its arrangements extends far beyond these issues. We examine the human rights and equality provisions contained in Article 2 of the Protocol, and consider the implications of these for…
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Northern Ireland, Brexit & Jumping Scales

Aoife O’Donoghue (Durham University) and Sylvia de Mars (Newcastle University) Many outside the Brexit bubble probably wonder why we are still talking about it. Those dissatisfied with the Brexit ‘agreements’ probably place the blame for all lasting issues squarely on Northern Ireland’s shoulders – though who specifically to point the finger at, for most, remains…
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Welcome to the Magic World of International Law

Paola Mariani (Bocconi University) The United Kingdom left the European Union at midnight on 31 January 2020 under the terms of the Withdrawal Agreement. But due to the transition period expired last 31 December 2020, only now we can start to understand the real meaning of Brexit. The same can be said for the Protocol…
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Could the European Parliament Kill Off the Brexit Deal?

Francis Jacobs (formerly European Parliament staff) The role of the European Parliament  in the adoption of the EU-UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement Agreement on a Trade and Cooperation Agreement (TCA) between the EU and the UK may have been reached by the two negotiating teams on 24 December 2020, but it will only be final if and when…
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Conferencing about the Future of Europe

Matej Avbelj (New University, Ljubljana) The long awaited Conference on the Future of the Europe is scheduled to finally take off on 9 May in Strasbourg.  The just adopted Joint declaration, prepared by the Portuguese presidency, fleshes out the concept, mandate, organisation and goals of the Conference. As is well known, the political expectations with…
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The Conference on the Future of Europe: Relaunching the EU after Brexit and Covid-19

Federico Fabbrini (DCU Brexit Institute) Today, 10 March 2021, the Presidents of the three main institutions of the European Union (EU) – the Commission, Parliament and Council – will formally approve a Joint Declaration launching the Conference on the Future of Europe. This news – which in the past days was somehow overshadowed, particularly in…
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Italy Under Mario Draghi, Guarantor and Builder in Europe

Flavio Brugnoli (Centro Studi sul Federalismo) The distinguishing characteristic of the government led by Mario Draghi leaves no room for doubt: it is an executive – as he emphasised in his programmatic speech to the Senate – born “in the wake of our country’s membership, as a founding member, of the European Union, and as…
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Cross-Border Data Protection After Brexit

Edoardo Celeste (DCU) From a data protection perspective, Brexit manifestly represents a step backwards for the UK. The UK is leaving a space where personal data has freely circulated since 1995, where companies are subject to uniform rules and where national data protection authorities cooperate in a coordinated manner. Brexit has increased the level of complexity of data protection law by…
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Britain’s Nordic Allies Confront the Brave New World of Post-Brexit Europe

Daniel F. Schulz (University of Agder) It has finally happened. After more than four years of transition with numerous missed deadlines and extensions, the United Kingdom’s exit from the Single Market clearly marks the beginning of a new era – not only for the UK itself, but for its closest allies within the European Union…
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After Brexit: UK Citizens Living in Europe

Orsolya Farkas (Free University of Bolzano/Bozen) It has been clear since the very beginning that Brexit would fundamentally change the legal status of the approx. 1.2 million UK citizens living in Europe, and that those who are planning to move will find themselves in a new situation. But it was less expected that uncertainty –…
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Immigration, Free Movement and Brexit

Jonathan Portes (Kings College London and UK in a Changing Europe) Immigration was a major factor – perhaps the major factor – in the Brexit vote. Over the past two decades, migration from the EU has boosted UK growth, helped address skill and labour shortages, and benefited the public finances. It also led to rapid…
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Brexit ‘not done’ for Data Protection

Karen Mc Cullagh (University of East Anglia) The current Prime Minister of the UK, Mr Boris Johnson, was infamously elected to “get Brexit done,” and he claimed to have achieved this goal when the European Union and United Kingdom agreed upon the terms of the historic EU-UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement (the “Trade Agreement”) on 24th…
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New Year, But the Brexit Story is Not Over

Federico Fabbrini (DCU Brexit Institute) Since 1st January 2021, the United Kingdom (UK) has exited the European Union (EU)’s internal market and customs union, as well as its area of freedom security and justice, severing the last substantive bridge connecting it to continental Europe. While in fact the UK had formally left the EU already on…
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Last-Minute Legislating as the Brexit Deal is Concluded

Joelle Grogan (Middlesex University London) On Christmas Eve 2020, only seven days before the end of the transition period and a ‘No Deal’ Brexit on 31 December 2020, negotiators concluded a Draft Trade and Cooperation Agreement between the UK and the EU. On any scale of negotiation for an international agreement, particularly one of this…
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Why the EU Avoided the Cliff Edge Brexit that Many had Feared

Simon Sweeney (University of York) Prime Minister Boris Johnson achieved his aim: ‘Canada Plus’, no tariffs or quotas on merchandise trade. The Plus is continued cooperation in security, transport, and energy. The UK also stays in Euratom, the EU’s atomic energy community. These are substantial achievements for London, avoiding immediate and critical damage from no…
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Christmas’ Eve Brexit Deal

Federico Fabbrini (DCU Brexit Institute) On 24 December 2020, Christmas’ Eve, the European Union (EU) and the United Kingdom (UK) have reached a deal on the framework of their future relations. The draft EU-UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement brings to a close 10 months of intense negotiations – which started right after the withdrawal of…
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The Interim UK-Canada FTA: Good News for British Exporters

David Collins (City, University of London) The UK struck a new free trade agreement (FTA) with Canada over the weekend, ahead of the 31 December Brexit deadline after which the EU-Canada Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) would cease to apply to the UK, leaving it to trade with Canada under the less generous terms…
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Taking Stock of What a Joe Biden Presidency Means for Brexit Negotiations

Pieter Cleppe (PRA) The question of how the prospect of a Joe Biden Presidency will affect EU-UK negotiations has raised a lot of attention. Opinions seem to differ. Former Brexit Party leader Nigel Farage writes that “Joe Biden is no friend of Britain”, arguing that therefore, the UK, “is now far more likely to do…
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After the US Elections: Brexit Reality Check

Ardi Kolah (Queen’s University Belfast) As Michel Barnier, the EU’s lead negotiator, arrived by Eurostar from Brussels to continue a ‘more intensive’ round of talks with the UK Government on the shape of a potential Brexit trade deal[1], it’s time for both sides take a Brexit Reality Check. US President-Elect Joe Biden’s narrow victory over…
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Historicising the Role of the EU in the Northern Ireland Peace Process

Giada Lagana (Cardiff University) The existing literature, research, and media coverage have always tended to neglect the important role of the European Union (EU) in restoring peace in Northern Ireland. The political dimension of Northern Ireland engagement with the EU has usually been defined as ‘subtle’, because it did not visibly extend to a superficial…
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The End of the post-Brexit Transition and the Global Pharmaceutical Sector

John S. F. Wright (University of Technology Sydney) and Dimitrios Doukas (University of Manchester) The UK’s withdrawal from the European Union raises serious, and potentially crippling, governance and legal challenges in the context of the global pharmaceutical sector (Wright and Doukas 2020).  Specifically, the UK risks a loss of influence over the licensing and surveillance of…
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Post-Brexit UK Fund Regulation: Equivalence, Divergence or Convergence?

Elizabeth Howell (London School of Economics) The UK’s collective investment scheme (‘CIS’) sector is a key aspect of UK financial services. With the UK’s departure from the EU, it has also become a politically salient topic, with various Member States competing to lure business to their financial centres in light of Brexit. Brexit prompts hard…
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Rishi Sunak: Brexit Britain’s Future?

Joshua Hockley-Still (University of Exeter) As Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s deadline to reach a Brexit deal passed without agreement, Britain is now less than 3 months away from leaving the European Union without a trade deal (commonly known as ‘no deal’.) Johnson’s position is clear; being considered the man to get Brexit done took him…
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Deal or No Deal? EU-UK Negotiations Have Hit the Wall, but the End is Not in Sight

Simon Sweeney (University of York) The hard ball negotiation just got harder still. The Brexit news last week was depressing but unsurprising. Depressing because ‘a deal’ would serve both sides by helping diplomatic relations, benefiting mutual security, and serving the needs of industry and jobs. It would bring a collective sigh of relief in Ireland,…
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An Unpopular View on Brexit and EU Defence 

Øyvind Svendsen (NUPI) As for now, the prospects of any formal future EU-UK relationship on security and defence is in shambles. However, leaving security and defence out of the 2020 Brexit negotiations on the future relationship may have been a wise move from the UK. Realizing that the lengthy UK process to agree on and ratify…
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The Trust Deficit and the Internal Market Bill: Challenges for a Post-Brexit Dispute Resolution Regime Between the EU and the UK

Rishi Gulati (Dublin City University) It is trite to say that the presence of an independent and impartial dispute resolution system that can amicably resolve international disputes is necessary to maintain international peace and security. In fact, the development of a relatively robust international adjudicative framework since the 1990s is one of the most remarkable…
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Backstop, Frontstop, Full Stop?

Cathal McCall (Queen’s University Belfast) Backstop The backstop became the major bone of contention in the Draft Agreement on the Withdrawal of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland from the European Union and the European Atomic Energy Community (2018). It was contained in Draft Agreement’s Protocol on Ireland/Northern Ireland. The Protocol decreed…
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The Rule of Law, the UK’s Advocate-General and Brexit

Alan S. Reid (Sheffield Hallam University) Introduction Brexit is unprecedented in its complexity. However, the very fact that Brexit would wreak legal uncertainty was entirely predictable. Extricating the United Kingdom from the orbit of the European Union legal space was always going to be fraught with legal minefields, given the UK’s 47-year membership of the…
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The July 21 Big Deal: Towards an Ever Closer Union

Ingolf Pernice (Humboldt University) The Special European Council of June 17-21 reached an agreement of a historic dimension: four days of negotiation produced a break-through that would have been unthinkable before the Corona crisis. Beyond the Multiannual Financial Framework the “Next Generation EU (NGEU)” was adopted. The hopeless debate on Eurobonds is over. Although called “an extraordinary recovery…
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A New Eurogroup President – Does it Matter?

George Papaconstantinou (former Finance Minister, Greece) The election of Irish Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe to succeed Portuguese Mario Centeno at the head of the Eurogroup came as a surprise. Nadia Calvino, the Spanish Finance Minister, seemed to be the odds-on favourite, and indeed was just one vote short of securing the Presidency outright in the first…
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Rule of Law in EU’s Asylum Policy in front of The ECJ

Introduction In a recent judgment, the CJEU confirmed that Poland, Hungary, and the Czech Republic breached European Union law (EU law) by not implementing two Council Decisions (here and here; discussed in detail here) for the relocation of asylum seekers after the European refugee crisis in the Mediterranean. In this seminal judgment, the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU)…
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The Karlsruhe Judgement: More Consequences Outside the Eurozone than Inside?

Agnieszka Smolenska (EBI & EUI) On 5 May the German Constitutional Court rejected the argument brought before it by a number of German economists that the ECB’s bond purchasing programme, the PSPP, violated the notorious prohibition of monetary financing enshrined in the EU Treaty (Art. 123 TFEU). As part of the program, the ECB has purchased 2 trillion…
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Europe at 70: New Challenges Ahead

Gilles Grin (Jean Monnet Foundation for Europe and the University of Lausanne) On 9 May 2020 Europe will celebrate the 70th anniversary of the Schuman Declaration inspired by Jean Monnet. The date of this Declaration represents a landmark in European history, taking place only five years after the end of the Second World War, as…
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Beyond the Pandemic: More Integrated EU-wide Public Debt Instruments?

Albert Sanchez Graells (Bristol Law School) Beyond its terrible death toll and massive public health implications, the COVID-19 pandemic and the lockdown measures put in place to try to contain or mitigate it are bound to have severe and long-lasting economic effects. The European Union (EU) and its economic and financial governance now face very…
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The European Fintech Industry after Brexit

Pierangelo Rosati (DCU Business School) After years of discussions and negotiations, the United Kingdom (UK) finally left the European Union (EU) on 31 January 2020. Even though this is clearly a big step for the UK and for those who voted to leave in 2016, it is more formal than substantial. In fact, most uncertainties…
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‘The Thin Ice’: Three Questions on Emergency and the Rule of Law

Francesco Rossi (University of Ferrara) ‘The crack in the ice’: what would you expect to witness in the wake of an emergency? Imagine waking up the morning after the next pandemic. What would you expect to witness? This question will recall readers of the first page of one of Bruce Ackerman’s books on restriction to…
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Covid-19: New crisis, New Existential Challenge for the EU?

Patrick Bijsmans (Maastricht University) A few months back I read Anu Bradford’s much-debated article ‘The Brussels Effect’. Her main argument: through its stringent regulations the EU has set standards for countries across the world, shaping polices on a wide range of issues, from chemicals to privacy. Bradford has elaborated on the argument in a recently…
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The Conference on the Future of Europe: Reforming the European Union?

Miriam Postiglione (Università degli Studi di Milano) As it has been announced by the Commission and the European Parliament, the Conference on the future of Europe [Ed: recently analysed by the Brexit Institute Working Paper Series here] is (was?) meant to start on Schuman day – i.e. May 9th, 2020 – which has also a…
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Keir Starmer Wins Election for Labour Leadership

Keir Starmer, until recently Shadow Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union, has been elected today as the successor of Jeremy Corbyn in taking up the leadership of the Labour Party. Among his rivals, Rebecca Long-Bailey received 28% of the vote, and Lisa Nandy the 16% in the final leg of the election. Sir…
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General Election 2020 – Change and the non Brexit election

Gary Murphy (Dublin City University) The last decade has been the most historic in Irish electoral life. The Irish party system, once amongst the most stable in modern Europe has been destroyed by the economic crash. That crash sundered party loyalty. The result has been large swings in the three elections since 2011. The 2011…
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Ireland, Brexit, and the 2020 General Elections

Eoin O’Malley (Dublin City University) Ireland votes on 8 February. The last Dáil (parliament) lasted almost four years, about three and a half longer than many people expected. One of the reasons for its longevity was Brexit. The government formed in 2016 after 70 days of stand-off and negotiations was a minority one that depended…
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The Future of Europe Beyond Brexit

Federico Fabbrini (Director of the DCU Brexit Institute and Principal Investigator of the BRIDGE Network) The UK is leaving the EU today. But this is not the end of Europe. The nascent Conference on the Future of Europe can chart the continent towards a bright new beginning. Today, Friday January 31st 2020, at midnight Brussels time,…
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The Difficult Dilemma of Spain’s New Government

Leonardo Álvarez Álvarez (University of Oviedo) On the 7th of January 2020, after the elections held on the 10th of November 2019, the Spanish parliament finally achieved the majority it needed in order to nominate a president.  This investiture brought an end to Pedro Sánchez’s 254 days as acting head of the government, since the…
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Back to the Future with the VDL Commission

Patrick Bijsmans (Maastricht University) Finally. Jean-Claude Juncker has bid us ‘au revoir’ via his own edition of the Politico Playbook and the new Von der Leyen Commission started earlier this month. Things didn’t go as smoothly as some had hoped, with the European Parliament blocking three of the candidate Commissioners (László Trócsányi, Hungary; Rovana Plumb,…
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What lies ahead for the new European Commission: Brexit and beyond

Joelle Grogan (Middlesex University) Brexit is the ‘shock’ that united Europe according to the President-elect of the Commission, Ursula von der Leyen (VDL). There’s certainly an element of truth to this. Despite some occasional signs of disagreement, the EU-27 have given every show of maintaining a unified position in all stages of the Brexit process…
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“With or without you”: a new Commission with or without the UK?

Natassa Athanasiadou (Maastricht University) When the European Council, on 29 October 2019, decided to extend the withdrawal negotiation period until the 31st of January 2020, it became clear that this extension would bear implications also for the composition of the new Commission. Indeed, in recital 11 of the European Council’s decision, it is explicitly mentioned…
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The Achilles Heel(s) of the EU and UK Criminal Justice System in the Brexit saga

Francesco Rossi (University of Ferrara) Introduction The entrance of the United Kingdom into the European Community pursuant to the European Community Act (1972) started a process of Europeanisation of UK law. The UK legal system has undergone profound transformations from the outside, but it has also driven the development of EU law by exporting strategies…
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What To Expect (From the EU Council) When You Are Expecting A Brexit Deal

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Could the European Council grant the UK a new extension?

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Some Consequences of a Brexit for EU Decentralised Agencies

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Growing Momentum for a Deal

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The New European Commission and the Future of the EU  

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An Historical Perspective on Brexit: Six Theories

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The Italian political crisis: a new government or snap elections?

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Political polarization in Spain and the election of the Prime Minister

Political polarization in Spain and the election of the Prime Minister  Leonardo Álvarez Álvarez (University of Oviedo) The approval of the Spanish Constitution of 1978 was a consequence of a broad consensus between different political forces. However, Spain’s current difficulties electing a Prime Minister following the elections held on the 28th of April 2019 appear…
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Self-Rule in the 21st century: How UK Citizens Lose Influence Through Brexit

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Brexit’s Implications for UK-EU Relations in Justice and Home Affairs

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Von der Leyen’s Paper-Thin Election: Will She Keep her Promises?

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As Brexit Advances, Grexit Recedes: The Greek Elections and the New Normal

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The New EU Top Jobs and the Future of Europe

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Event Report: ‘Which Brexit After the European Elections?’

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European Elections: A European Perspective – Deadlock or a New Beginning?  

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European elections – The Italian perspective: Italian populist nationalism changes but remains in charge

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European Elections – the UK Perspective. Brexit and the Unsettling of the Two-Party System

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European Elections: The Silence of the Lambs and the Dangerous Political Resignation – The Portuguese Perspective

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European Elections: A political earthquake which will not solve the Brexit saga

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May Day: Brexit & the Future of Europe

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Event Report: ‘Brexit and the European Parliament Elections 2019’

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European Parliament elections in times of (delayed) Brexit

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The Ireland-European Election Conundrum

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European Parliament Elections 2019 and the European demos in the midst of difficult challenges

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The Composition of the 2019-24 EU Parliament – Challenges in Light of Brexit

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What your vote in the European elections will and won’t change on Brexit

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Brexit: the 2019 General Elections in Spain and British Gibraltar

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Years Into the Brexit Process, the UK Still Faces Fundamental Choices for its Future Relationship with the EU

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Ad Kalendas Graecas? The Future of Brexit and Its Consequences for the EU

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Thirty-Four Months On: What Next For BREXIT?

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Event Report: High – Level Policy Dialogue, 4 April 2019

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Event Report: Brexit, the terms of Withdrawal and the Framework of future EU-UK Relations

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All-Island Customs Union: No Cure-All for the Irish Border Neither

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An alternative to the Irish Backstop? An “All-Ireland Common No-Custom Area” as a Frontier Traffic Area under Art. XXIV GATT for products originating in the island

Giorgio Sacerdoti & Paola Mariani (Bocconi University) This article is a proposal which will be discussed in future blogs. (a) The situation envisaged under the Backstop. Let us first recall the terms of the issue. During the transition period (which will last until, at the latest, December 2022), the UK government will negotiate other future…
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Brexit in the Spirit of the Treaties

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The EU Should Insist on a Long Extension of Article 50

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A Week is a Very Long Time in Brexitland

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Fog In Channel – The Continent is Confused

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The ‘European Renewal’ of French President Emmanuel Macron

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UK and EU Intelligence Communities in an Age of Durable Disorder After Brexit

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The Show Must Go On: Understanding the Brexit Theatre

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Brexit and the UK’s Self-Exile from Joint Parliamentary Scrutiny of Europol

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The Affective Understanding of Post-Brexit European Integration

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Emerging Post-Brexit Relations of Switzerland with the EU and the UK: New Year, New Treaties?

Emerging Post-Brexit Relations of Switzerland with the EU and the UK: New Year, New Treaties? Charlotte Sieber-Gasser (University of Lucerne) In its relations with Europe, Switzerland relies on more than 120 treaties regulating partial integration and sectoral market access in the EU and in the EFTA. The centrepiece of market access and partial integration treaties, the so-called…
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The Future of UK-EU Development Cooperation After Brexit: Finding a New Point of Departure

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The Narrow Road to the Deep North: A Norwegian Escape Route for Post-Brexit Britain?

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Article 50 After Brexit: Reforming Withdrawal and Opt-Outs from the EU

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The ECJ Confirms that Article 50 Notification can be Unilaterally Revoked

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Defence, Security and Brexit: Ireland’s Dilemma

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The Brexit Deal and the UK-EU Security Relationship

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The Brexit Deal and Gibraltar

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The Art of the Deal: The European Council and Brexit

The Art of the Deal: the European Council and Brexit Federico Fabbrini (Professor of European Law & Director of DCU Brexit Institute) On Sunday 25 November 2018 the European Council approved the Brexit deal, giving its blessing to the draft international treaty regulating the orderly withdrawal of the UK from the EU and to the connected…
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The Brexit Deal: The Final Steps to Its Approval

The Brexit Deal: The Final Steps to Its Approval Ian Cooper (DCU Brexit Institute) This morning, Donald Tusk announced that the EU and the UK have reached an agreement on a 26-page Political Declaration on the framework for a future EU-UK relationship. Together with the 585-page draft Withdrawal Agreement, this is the long-awaited Brexit Deal.…
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The Brexit Deal

The Brexit Deal Federico Fabbrini (Director of the DCU Brexit Institute) Yesterday evening, Wednesday 14 November 2018, the United Kingdom and the European Union reached an agreement on the terms of an orderly withdrawal of the UK from the EU. The Brexit deal, which includes the full text of a withdrawal treaty as well as…
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We Need to Talk About Brexit and Aviation

Upcoming Event: Brexit and Aviation, November 15. Full details here. Barry McMullin (DCU School of Electronic Engineering) I recently received an invitation from the DCU Brexit Institute to its event to be held today on the subject of Brexit and Aviation. It seems like an important and timely topic, with an excellent line up of expert and…
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Brexit and Aviation: The Fate of the Emissions Trading Scheme

Upcoming Event: Brexit and Aviation, November 15. Full details here. Andrew Murphy (Transport & Environment) In the jumble of issues that Brexit touches on, aviation is one that manages to regularly make headlines. From concerns about British manufacturing jobs in the sector, to allegations that Ireland is threatening access, to the risk posed to British holiday makers, aviation…
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Merkel’s Slow Exit, Ireland and Brexit

German Chancellor Angela Merkel steps down from her party’s leadership: Will her country’s Brexit position soften? Aaron Burnett (Emerging Voices Group, IIEA) Less than two weeks before announcing she would not campaign again to lead Germany’s ruling Christian Democratic Union (CDU), Chancellor Merkel appeared before the Bundestag to outline the Brexit position her government would…
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After a No-Deal Brexit, Would the UK Remain in the EEA by Default?

After a No-Deal Brexit, Would the UK Remain in the EEA by Default? Yuliya Kaspiarovich (University of Geneva) and Nicolas Levrat (University of Geneva) Brexit is a journey on uncharted waters. Diplomats, political scientists, economists and legal scholars have neither precedent nor theoretical framework to appraise and analyse the situation. If art. 50 TEU (Treaty on European Union)…
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Politics, Not Interests, Will Shape the UK-EU Security Relationship

Politics, Not Interests, Will Shape the UK-EU Security Relationship Benjamin Martill (London School of Economics) Monika Sus (Hertie School of Governance)   The Easy Question? It was once thought that managing the security and defence aspects of Brexit would be easy. The intergovernmental nature of EU security and defence policy has always meant that the…
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