What role do and could national parliaments of EU member states play in the EU framework? How do the Treaty of Lisbon reforms, which aim to generate more influence for national parliaments in EU decision-making processes, work in practice?
The United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP) insurgency is likely to continue at next year’s European elections, where their anti-EU and anti-immigration stances have a good chance of resonating during the election campaign.
With Euroscepticism on the rise and increased contestation over the EU as a political entity, will the 2014 European Parliament elections become more politicized than ever?
Does Europe, which has been key to the development of the Norwegian Constitution and democracy, constitute the biggest threat against constitutional democracy in Norway today?
The EU financial crisis has pushed thousands of citizens to migrate in a bid to escape uncertainty, unemployment and poverty. Many pick Norway as their destination. What are their experiences?
Southern Europe has been severely struck by the financial crisis, in social as well as political terms. How has the crisis been handled, and could it have been done differently? These questions were discussed at an open seminar staged by ARENA on 18 September 2013.
The time is ripe for European public diplomacy to take centre stage, Mai'a K. Davis Cross and Jan Melissen argue in a recent policy brief. As far as the EU does engage with with the rest of the world, communication is too often based on one-way informational practices rather than true dialogue.
Traditionally, US reactions to CSDP have been everything from confrontational to supportive to denigrating to mute. Instead of gauging all these perspectives, Mai'a Davis Cross argues that Europeans should rather focus on developing and strengthening CSDP on their own terms.
Worse than foreign misperception, is how Europeans judge themselves, according to Mai'a K. Davis Cross and Jan Melissen in EUobserver.
The university sector has undergone major changes in coordination modes and systemic governance over the last decades. In this blog post, Tatiana Fumasoli presents some research results from the Flagship project as well as other studies which were discussed at two recent conferences.
In a recent interview Tatiana Fumasoli explains some preliminary and highly interesting findings from the FLAGSHIP project.
Andreas Grimmel, guest researcher at ARENA, comments on the European Court of Justice’s growing role in the domain of fundamental rights. He argues that it is not a sign of judicial activism, but of political insufficiencies.
In this EUROPP blog post, Andreas Grimmel, guest researcher at ARENA, comments on the difficulties in negotiating a joint European energy policy that might ultimately help drive the transition to renewable energy sources.
Benjamin Leruth, guest researcher at ARENA, comments on the Icelandic election results on the LSE's EUROPP Blog, arguing that an EU referendum may still be on the cards for Iceland as a majority of the population still supports accession talks.
Benjamin Leruth, guest researcher at ARENA, comments on euroscepticism in the Nordic states on the LSE's EUROPP Blog, pointing to the high level of variation between countries.
It is trivial to say that the European Union is going through an existential crisis. But which crisis? Whose crisis?
Two days ago, the Greek government shut down the Greek public broadcast company (ERT), in a manner reminiscent of the junta ways back in the 60s-70s. Asimina Michailidou comments on the role of public broadcasting services in modern democracies.
John Moodie in this EUROPP blog post argues that while there are legitimate concerns over the use of Commission expert groups, there are adequate checks and balances in place to provide democratic safeguards.
Nationality plays only a minor role in influencing the behaviour of Commission staff, and is simply one of many factors influencing the actions of Commissioners, Morten Egeberg writes on LSE's EUROPP Blog.
Why are we witnessing such anger over the financial crisis of the Eurozone, when so much is achieved at the same time as the EU’s revenue basis and power instruments are miniscule?
The conference 'Europe in crises, Europe as the crisis?', which was staged on 14-15 March 2013, discussed the EU’s profound existential crisis. The event was organised by ARENA’s John Erik Fossum and Agustín José Menéndez and gathered prominent international scholars as well as experts with first-hand experience from working with the common monetary policy.
The EPISTO project staged its kick-off conference in Oslo on 4-5 April 2013. Around 60 participants contributed to a real kick-start of the project, which is lead by Cathrine Holst at ARENA.
What are the implications of the current European crisis for democracy and employment in a long-term perspective? What does it mean that various parts of Europe move in different directions at the same time? ARENA has been granted NOK 24 million from the Research Council of Norway for a cross-disciplinary project to investigate the emerging segmentation in Europe.