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This blog post is the fourth in a series of posts that come from students of our Politics of the European Union undergraduate course. As part of the course, students were asked to write about an issue pertaining to European integration. The best blog posts have been selected to provide an opportunity to exceptional young scholarsContinue reading “This time it’s different? The prospects for change in the European elections”

The conventional wisdom among policymakers in Europe is that Ireland is recovering from the Eurozone crisis because it successfully implemented the EMU adjustment program (or the Memorandum of Understanding, MOU). This is broadly true, if one accepts the performance indicators used by the Troika (the European Central Bank (ECB), the International Monetary Fund (IMF) andContinue reading “Has the EU Troika Adjustment Strategy Worked?”

Electoral turnout has been declining in all European parliamentary elections since 1979. This is part of a general decline in voter turnout across the western world. Political science research suggests that young people and those on low-incomes are less inclined to vote. This is the opposite for middle aged, middle-income earners. Middle-income voters are the core electoral constituent forContinue reading “Local and European Elections: Populist Politics or Effective Problem-Solvers?”

This blog post is the third in a series of posts that come from students of our Politics of the European Union undergraduate course. As part of the course, students were asked to write about an issue pertaining to European integration. The best blog posts have been selected to provide an opportunity to exceptional young scholarsContinue reading “Euroscepticism and the protest vote: Do voters really support UKIP policies?”

With the European elections fast approaching, informing voters about the politics and policies of the parties running in the election is an important undertaking. Of course, we cannot leave the provision of information to the parties themselves. The euandi project helps citizens make informed choices in their 2014 European Parliament (EP) vote. Developed by the European UniversityContinue reading “euandi – A voter advice application for the forthcoming European elections”

This blog post is the second in a series of posts that come from students of our Politics of the European Union undergraduate course. As part of the course, students were asked to write about an issue pertaining to European integration. The best blog posts have been selected to provide an opportunity to exceptional young scholars at UCD toContinue reading “Iceland and the EU: Foul-weather Friends?”

The Eurozone crisis has resulted in a shift toward greater market liberalisation and flexibility rather than social protection and security. This seriously calls into question the notion of a ‘social Europe’, and the future direction of European integration more generally. In the study of comparative capitalism there has been a long debate on whether Europe integrationContinue reading “Varieties of Capitalism and European Integration”

This blog post is the first in a series of posts that come from students of our Politics of the European Union undergraduate course. As part of the course, students were asked to write about an issue pertaining to European integration. The best blog posts have been selected to provide an opportunity to exceptional young scholars at UCDContinue reading “The Problem with Enlargement”

Why did the ECB not intervene in the sovereign bond markets when the crisis first erupted in Greece? There are several reasons. One is German opposition.   Germans just don’t want to have it. Your question  then, might be, is why do the Germans not want it? Here it is a combination of different things.Continue reading “A Dialogue with Prof Paul de Grauwe on the Power of Economic Ideas”

Mario Monti, the previous Prime Minister of Italy, gave a lecture to the European People’s Party at the European University Institute (EUI) last year. In advance of this lecture I was lucky enough to attend a private discussion with him on the impact of the Eurozone crisis on European integration. The theme of the seminarContinue reading “Inside the Mind of Mario Monti”