Latest posts
Democratizing the Eurozone
Article by Vivien Schmidt published on the European Social Journal, 15 May 2012 In recent months, more and more attention has been focused on the failure of the Eurozone leaders’ policies of fiscal consolidation, with growth presented as the alte...
The Extinction of the Greek Dinosaurs?
Article published by Takis S. Pappas on Open Democracy, 11 May 2012 The collapse of the two formerly dominant Greek parties, PASOK and New Democracy, has left a gaping void in the center of the political competition space waiting to be filled by libe...
How to Negotiate under Co-decision in the EU: Reforming Trilogues and First-Reading Agreements
CEPS Policy Brief by Lukas Obholzer and Christine Reh , 8 May 2012 The Constitutional Affairs Committee is currently reviewing the European Parliament’s Rules of Procedure to increase the effectiveness, transparency and inclusiveness of first...
The Paradox of the EU and Democracy
Article by Andrew Lilico, published on The Telegraph, 9 May 2012 Following recent anti-austerity votes in France and Greece and the fall of the Dutch government, some folk have begun to ask whether the euro is really compatible with democracy. It is...
Europe Day: Hard Challenges, Soft Democracy
Article by Bruno Kaufmann published on the EUObserver, 9 May 2012 There is no doubt that history was made on Europe Day in 2012. It marked the first time a direct, transnational and digital tool of formal citizen participation came into operation. Bu...
Professionalization and Individualized Collective Action: Analyzing New ‘Participatory’ Dimensions in Civil Society
Jan W. van Deth Jan van Deth summarizes for EUDO Café the core argument of the volume he recently edited: Jan W. van Deth & William A. Maloney (eds), Professionalization and Individualized Collective Action: Analyzing New ‘Participatory’ D...
Those Revolting Europeans
Article by Paul Krugman, published on The New York Times, 6 May 2012 The French are revolting. The Greeks, too. And it’s about time. Both countries held elections Sunday that were in effect referendums on the current European economic strategy, and...
Stop Fretting about a French Revolution
Article by Philip Stephens published on the Financial Times, 3 May 2012 France’s presidential election has offered a glimpse of Europe in revolutionary mood. Yet it would be a mistake to draw the conclusion that the Fifth Republic is poised to ele...
Let’s Create a Bottom-Up Europe
Article by Jacques Delors, Javier Solana, Ulrich Beck, Daniel Cohn-Bendit and others, published on The Guardian, 3 May 2012 We want to establish a counter model to the Europe of elites and technocrats, and re-establish its political creativity and...
Europe, the Eurozone Crisis and the French Presidential Elections of 2012
Date: 11th May 2012 Time: 12pm–2pm Venue: Europe House, Smith Square, London SW1P 3EU Europe and the world have changed fundamentally since French voters last went to the polls to elect a new President in 2007. Global financial and economic cris...
The Deep Structure of the European Crisis
Article by Ferenc Miszlivetz published on Open Democracy, 30 April 2012 Instead of deepening integration, the famous Franco-German engine now represented by the Merkozy-Sarkel tandem has brought the EU to the fringe of disintegration. Where does t...
Kicking Against Austerity
Article by Charlemagne publshed on The Economist, 28 April 2012 (from the print edition) France and the Netherlands once again resist the European consensus. Read the article...
With Mario Monti’s technocratic government, it is not just the idea of party government which is being damaged in Italy, but the very idea of the political party’s role as an indispensable agent of democracy
Post by Duncan McDonnell published on Europp, 16 April 2012 Silvio Berlusconi was Italy’s longest-serving prime minister since Benito Mussolini, and his resignation was a turning point in modern Italian history. Duncan McDonnell argues that his su...
Technocrats have taken over governments in Southern Europe. This is a challenge to democracy
Post by Jonathan Hopkin published on Europp, 24 April 2012 Only Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, has survived a post-crisis election. Italy’s Silvio Berlusconi and Greece’s Georgios Papandreou were replaced by technocrats. Jonathan Hopkin ar...
Les deux référendums anti-Sarkozy
Article published on Le Monde, 23 April 2012 La crise a voté. Massivement. Les Français n’ont pas, dira-t-on, cédé au désenchantement démocratique. Read the article...
European Publics, Desperately Seeking European Politics
Article by Markus Ojala, published on Open Democracy, 19 April 2012 The scope and seriousness of communication about Europe, and concurrent growing demands for European democracy from civil society might even legitimize an argument about an emerging...
The Future of Europe: Towards a Two-Speed EU?
On 11 April, Jean-Claude Piris, who served as the Legal Counsel of the European Council and of the Council of the European Union and Director General of their Legal Service from 1988 to 2010, gave a Debating Europe lecture on “The Future of Eu...
Pirates prepare to enter Europe
Article published on Deutsche Welle, 17 April 2012 “We stand for more democracy,” says Gregory Engels, international coordinator of the German Pirate Party. He tells DW how his party intends to achieve this on the European level. Read the...
Europe 2.0: A Blueprint for Redesigning European-level Parliamentary Democracy
Article by Steven Hill published on Social Europe Journal Europeans, whether they realize it or not, have passed only the first few bends in the road of a years-long journey to overhaul their key economic and political institutions. This redesign wil...
European Democracy: Circus or Reality?
Notre Europe proposes the synthesis of a debate organised on the occasion of the publication of the book Circus Politicus, at the Foreign Press Centre in Paris. The authors and journalists, Philippe Deloire and Christophe Dubois argue in favour of th...
