EU POLITICS |
June 2014, the Standing Group on the EU organized the 7th pan-European conference on the politics of the European Union. 330 Researchers from all over the world participated to present papers on research questions concerning EU politics. The international conference dealt with following sections:
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1. The economic crisis and the future of European integration: debates and solutions 2. Democracy, parties, citizens and interest representation in the EU 3. EU Institutions: the new balance 4. Governance, innovation and regulation in the EU 5. Policy making and implementation: sectors and actors 6. Foreign and security policy, external relations and external governance 7. New methods, models, and approaches in EU studies The EU is in the midst of an unprecedented economic turmoil which affects not only monetary and macro-economic policies but the legitimacy of the European project as a whole. This section addresses the causes, mechanisms, effects, spillovers and potential solutions to the crisis, as well as the implications of the crisis for individual member states and for European integration. There was focus on democracy and representation in the EU broadly conceived. Papers on constitutional developments, legitimacy, norms and rights in the EU, electoral politics, the role of political parties, the relationship between parties and voters, and citizen attitudes to issues of European integration, as well as with lobbying and interest mobilization in the EU came to the front. The EU institutions are still coming to grips with the effects of the Eastern Enlargement and the reforms introduced with the Treaty of Lisbon. Papers dealt with the functioning and transformations of EU institutions, the patterns of inter-institutional conflict and cooperation, and the evolving balance of power. Also the theoretical and empirical analysis of the new forms and tools of governance born in response to the crisis, as well as other innovative forms of governance in the EU, patterns of regulatory policy making, coordination, networks in policy making, administrative and management innovations was discussed, as was the policy making in traditional sectors of EU activities, including but not restricted to internal market, social policy, environment, migration, consumer protection, etc. The section covered the process of development of EU policies as well as the analysis of the implementation, enforcement, and impact of the rules at the national level. |
Despite the intensive development of organizational structures, the European Union continues facing serious challenges in the international arena: from the responses to changes in Northern Africa to issues of energy security and relations with neighbours and new rising powers. Internally, institutional innovations such as the External Action Service need to be evaluated in terms of their ability to perform their envisaged functions. This section welcomed papers and panels touching on the whole spectrum of themes relevant for foreign policy, security and external action.
The study of European integration is rooted in diverse academic traditions and exhibits wide varieties of research philosophies and methodologies. This section collected papers that bring innovative methods, models, and approaches to the study of the EU, including but not restricted to experimental methods, statistical tools for causal inference, formal models, agent-based simulation, and other approaches that push the boundary of EU research. |
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| Jean Monnet Programme Leiden University Public Administration (FGGA) ended February 2018: |
