Our new volume ‘The EU under Strain? Current Crises Shaping European Union Politics‘ has just been published with De Gruyter. It is the inaugural volume of our new book series ‘Europe under Strain‘, which I co-edit with the wonderful Daniel Schade (Leiden University). Daniel is also the co-editor of the…
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Conference: ‘Social Europe and the Making of EMU: Contradiction in Terms or Missed Opportunities? (1957-1992)’
On 25-26 May, a group of scholars from across Europe studying the history of European social policy and Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) came together at the EUI’s Villa Salviati to explore the interrelations between Social Europe and EMU. In three panels and an engaging final round of discussion, the…
Continue ReadingScience Award 2023 of the German Bundestag for ‘Turning Talk into Power: The Parliamentary Roots of European Social Policy’
I am deeply honoured to be awarded the Wissenschaftspreis des Deutschen Bundestages (Science Award of the German Bundestag) 2023 for my book ‘Turning Talk into Power: The Parliamentary Roots of European Social Policy’ (alongside Oliver Haardt, for his volume ‘Bismarcks ewiger Bund. Eine neue Geschichte des Deutschen Kaiserreichs’). According to…
Continue ReadingMeeting the European Health Risk Union with a European Health Rights Union
In the context of this year’s European Health Forum Gastein (EHFG), I was asked to comment on the question: Why do we need a true European Health Union? In a nutshell, I argue in my response that we are currently living in a European Health Risk Union where risks both…
Continue ReadingThe unreliability of compassion, and the European Parliament’s history of self-empowerment: Two columns at “Ideas on Europe”
Since October 2021, UACES and Euradio are together hosting a new editorial in which scholars from the broad area of European studies address and discuss current issues as well as long-term developments in and across Europe, its political, cultural, societal and economic landscapes. Given the chance to present some of…
Continue ReadingOUT NOW: The Parliamentary Roots of European Social Policy (Palgrave, 2021)
My book The Parliamentary Roots of European Social Policy: Turning Talk into Power has been published with Palgrave Macmillan. This book brings together the main findings from my research project on the institutional evolution of the European Parliament prior to its first direct elections. Here’s the abstract of the book:…
Continue ReadingSummer conference season 2021: Presentations on European social policy, national health and asylum policies & more
The summer conference season 2021 opened for me with this year’s annual conference of the Refugee Law Initiative, ‘Ageing Gracefully? The 1951 Refugee Convention at 70‘. What a splendid event, with an enormous variety of speakers from all parts of the world, inspiring keynotes and in-depth discussions! I was happy…
Continue ReadingComing soon: The Parliamentary Roots of European Social Policy. Turning Talk into Power (Palgrave Macmillan)
Now that it has a website, it feels overwhelmingly real: my book on the early European Parliament’s emerging influence on – and through – the establishment of a European social dimension will be published later this year with Palgrave Macmillan, as part of the “Palgrave Studies in European Union Politics”…
Continue ReadingTalk on the roles attributed to the EU in German and Swedish regulation of asylum seekers’ and refugees’ access to health care
Following my presentation on the (construed) role of the EU in national policies on asylum seekers’ and refugees’ access to health care at the “Health in Europe” discussion forum hosted by the Centre for Law and Society, Lancaster Law School (UK), in late March, I worked further on the underlying…
Continue ReadingConference talk: ‘Democratisation through Deliberation’
The European Parliament’s (EP) primary raison d’être is the representation of the EU citizens, providing its members with the necessary argumentative basis to claim: There is no democratic legitimacy in EU politics without us! – Whereas this claim is the same today as it was almost 70 years ago, the…
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