Torreblanca, Jose Ignacio and Leonard, Mark, (2013), “The continent-wide rise of Euroscepticism”, European Council on Foreign Relations, 16 May. Euroscepticism has spread across the continent like a virus. It is striking that everyone in the EU has been losing faith in the European project: both creditors and debtors, eurozone countries, would- be members and “opt-outs”. So what is going on? In ECFR’s new policy memo – The continent – wide …Read More

Habermas, Jürgen, (2013), “Democracy, Solidarity And The European Crisis”, Social Europe Journal, 7 May. The European Union owes its existence to the efforts of political elites who could count on the passive consent of their more or less indifferent populations as long as the peoples could regard the Union as also being in their economic interests, all things considered. The Union has legitimized itself in the eyes of the citizens …Read More

Carras, Costas, (2013), “Europe poised between union and hegemony”, Open Democracy – Free Thinking for the World. French and German overriding of the European Commission over the Stability Pact can be seen, ten years later, to have been disastrous. A vision more powerful, more engaging, more profound than “common interest” is now required if Europe is to survive, and divided Cyprus is a test case.

Micossi, Stefano, (2013), “How the EZ crisis is permanently changing EU institutions”, The Centre for Economic Policy Research, Policy Insight, N. 65. The Eurozone crisis has elicited oceans of comment and analysis related to crisis management. Much less noticed is the crisis’ deep impact on EU institutions. A series of decisions taken at crisis summits massively centralised EU executive power over national economic policymaking. These decisions also shifted the institutional …Read More

Trimikliniotis, Nicos, (2013), “The Cyprus Eurocrisis: the beginning of the end of the Eurozone?”, Open Democracy – Free Thinking for the World, 25 March. EU accession in 2004 did little if anything to make runaway bankers accountable; on the contrary, the so-called institutional ‘independence’ of the Central Bank making the Governor accountable to the ECB rather than having any democratic accountability to the people who would be immediately affected, made …Read More

Emmanouilidis, Janis A., (2013), “Striking the right balance? An uneventful summit despite mounting socio-political uncertainties – Post-Summit Analysis”, European Policy Centre, 18 March. It was not a summit that will enter the EU’s history books, and there were no new concrete additional measures to counter low economic growth and high (youth) unemployment. But the 14-15 March European Council did send out a subtle message that EU leaders – concerned about …Read More

Zahn, Rebecca, (2013), “European enlargement and the economic crisis: impact and lasting effects”, European Trade Union Institute, Working Paper 2013.1. This working paper by Rebecca Zahn of the University of Stirling looks at the effects of the economic crisis on the enlarged European Union and the European Social Model. Starting from an analysis of the well-known Viking and Laval decisions of the European Court of Justice from 2007 and 2008, the …Read More

Verluise, Pierre, (2013), “Will the EU Grow Again ? From EU-27 To EU-36 and Beyond?”, IRIS  – Institut De Relations Internationales Et Strategiques, March. The current uncertainty about the expanding frontiers of the European Union is nourishing anxiety that the European elites seem happy to underestimate. Rather like a boomerang this concern fuels a growing estrangement from the EU idea within the community. Hence, as we enter 2013, there is …Read More

Ungaro, Carlo, (2013), “Italy’s Perfect Storm”, Open Democracy – Free Thinking for the World, 7 March. Some foreign publications, in commenting on the situation in Italy after the recent electoral results, have reverted to the offensively superficial and trite image of “bring on the clowns”. The term could be used both in a derogatory and a purely descriptive sense, as the only real winner of the election, Mr. Beppe Grillo, …Read More