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Irish perspectives on European governance

Category Archives: European Parliament

Home truths about the Euro crisis

Jean-Claude Juncker said some remarkably candid things to the European parliament yesterday. His role as the chair of the Eurozone group of countries has given him limited scope to speak freely to date. Indeed he’s someone who is quoted as saying 'I’m for secret, dark debates'. Now that he’s about to step down, he’s made some extremely critical comments about the entire approach the EU has adopted in response to the crisis. I have some reflections on this, and especially on high and rising Read more [...]

The full Monti

Aidan Regan at the EUI has a fascinating account of Mario Monti's thoughts on a range of European issues here. Monti is particularly keen on increasing the capacity for effective decision-making at European level, and indeed the slow-motion political response to the crisis in the Eurozone has revealed how badly this is needed. Monti wants to see a stronger role for the European parliament relative to the Council, which would over-ride most of the current powers of national systems - something more Read more [...]

The Myth of Exceptional Europe: The Failure of EU Foreign Policy

The notion of the European Union being an exceptional international actor is well established in the literature and dates from the very inception of ‘Europe’ as being a continental peace project. In today’s literature, while a number of variations on the theme exist, the dominant model is that of the Union as a ‘normative power’. As initially defined and conceptualised by Ian Manners, this argued that Europe wielded power ‘…of an ideational nature characterized by common principles Read more [...]

The future of intergovernmentalism

Many Europeans are hoping that the (presumed) victory of Francois Hollande in Sunday's presidential election in France will be the start of a new, less austerity-obsessed approach to Europe's current crisis. But change in the Elysee will not address an equally important development in recent years -- the declining role of community institutions in favour of intergovernmental decision-making dominated by a de facto directoire of big states. (For discussion of this challenge, see "The worrying inevitability Read more [...]