Category: Institutions

EU Reform: The View from Local Government

Serafin Pazos-Vidal Local government in Scotland is greatly affected by the EU, with regulations and targets to implement that involve large compliance costs far outweighing any EU funding, writes Serafin Pazos-Vidal. He argues that the debate on the UK’s EU membership brings an opportunity for important EU reform to involve local government better in EU …

Prisoner Voting and the UK’s Imprisoned European Policy

Piet Eeckhout Following this month’s EU court ruling on voting rights for prisoners, Piet Eeckhout situates the judgement in context and assesses its consequences for the UK. In so doing, he explores the relationship between EU law and the European Convention on Human Rights, suggesting that, even when states attempt to avoid difficult ECHR rulings, …

The European Legal Order: Beyond Inter-State Retaliation

William Phelan The power and position of the European Court of Justice today is often attributed to its landmark rulings establishing the primacy and direct effect of EU law, writes William Phelan. He argues, however, that its ban on inter-state retaliation between Member States was equally important, empowering national courts to enforce EU law and …

VAT and Small Business: To the Heart of European Tax Policy?

Luca Cerioni In-Depth Analysis In this extended article, Luca Cerioni situates the debate on VAT in digital services and small business in the wider context of developments in EU tax policy. He argues that the EU’s approach of harmonising rules in some areas of tax and allowing competition in others weakens the single market and …

The EU’s Energy Union: Solidarity amid Dissensus?

Antti Silvast The European Commission’s proposal for a European Energy Union, designed to integrate EU energy markets and energy supplies, is in large part a collection of previous policy goals, writes Antti Silvast. He argues that, in the attempt to connect all the related elements of energy policy together in one, the plans risk being …

Interest Groups and EU Governance: Shooting Where the Ducks Are

Jeremy Richardson Interest groups follow power to its source and, with the progressive transfer of policy-making from national to European level, the network of interest groups in Brussels has intensified over time, writes Jeremy Richardson. He argues that their lobbying has eroded the ability of national governments to set policy agendas and that many interest …

Social Europe since the Crisis

Elke Heins and Caroline de la Porte The changes to Eurozone governance in response to the crisis have had considerable impact on national welfare states, argue Elke Heins and Caroline de la Porte. They suggest that, despite more recent efforts to take the social dimension into account, the Eurozone’s new structures strongly favour economic and …

The Ordoliberal Model and the Response to the Eurocrisis

María del Carmen Sandoval Velasco The crisis in the Eurozone has been met with a host of measures designed to enshrine a new fiscal order among the members of the single currency, writes María del Carmen Sandoval Velasco. She argues that Germany and other EU creditor countries have used these measures to embed values of …