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 ReadingThe 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 ReadingOn Wednesday, 24 March, I will present a part of my research project “Migration and health policies in Europe” at the “Health in Europe” discussion forum hosted by the Centre for Law and Society, Lancaster Law School (UK). In my talk, I will shed light on the (construed) roles national…
Continue ReadingFrom 17 to 19 October 2019, I had the opportunity to be among a wide range of scholars from a variety of disciplines – political science, sociology, law, anthropology, history etc. – who gathered at Newnham College, Cambridge University, to discuss recent developments and new insights in the field of…
Continue ReadingThis article examines the inner unity of the European Parliament’s (EP) party groups prior to its first direct elections in 1979, at a time when such unity was technically not necessary, given the EP’s dominantly consultative role, according to the Treaties; and when no electoral incentives and few disciplinary tools…
Continue ReadingOur Second Annual Graduate Conference on the History of European Integration will take place on 10-12 September 2018 at the European University Institute in Florence. You can submit an abstract until 31 March 2018. The Annual Graduate Conference on the History of European Integration is a joint initiative between the…
Continue ReadingNow it is official: I am very happy to take over the roll as country coordinator on Luxembourg at the great data collection project Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem), which aims to provide a new approach to conceptualising and measuring democracy worldwide. It compiles “a multidimensional and disaggregated dataset that reflects…
Continue ReadingBig step for our project on ‘The Informal Construction of Europe’: today, my co-editor Lennaert van Heumen and I signed a contract with Routledge for an edited volume. Our authors are working on their contributions concerning ideas, actors and procedures which had an impact on European integration through informal processes.…
Continue ReadingThis special issue, which I guest-edited with Prof. David Howarth, introduces the concept of ‘activism’ to the study of EU supranational institutions and their role in EU policy making and European integration. While long present in studies of the European Court of Justice, ‘activism’ has rarely been examined systematically in…
Continue ReadingThis post draws comparisons between the socioeconomic situation the EU faced in the 1970s with that of today. Both periods followed extreme economic crises and were defined by rapid technological transformation. Looking to the past as a guide, the article argues that there is a potential for today’s socioeconomic crisis…
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