EU institutions & treaties
Time to shake up the European Council
01 February 2007
The European Council, the EU’s supreme political authority, is malfunctioning. Europe’s most powerful leaders meet four times a year in the Council to review the EU’s work and and give political direction to the Commission, Parliament and Council of Ministers.
Issue 52 - 2007
26 January 2007
- Time to shake up the European Council, David Harrison
- French candidates miss the point on globalisation, Patrick Artus, Elie Cohen and Jean Pisani-Ferry
- Schengen should go west as well as east, Hugo Brady
What to expect from the German presidency
03 January 2007
On 1 January 2007, Germany took over the rotating EU presidency. Chancellor Angela Merkel has ambitious goals, most notably an EU agreement on what to do with the Union’s moribund constitutional treaty.
A primer on the German presidency
21 December 2006
On January 1st 2007, Germany takes over the rotating EU presidency. Chancellor Angela Merkel has ambitious goals that include an EU agreement on energy policy and on what to do with the Union's moribund constitutional treaty. Both will be very difficult to achieve.
Towards an environmental union
02 October 2006
When I was involved in the creation of CER in 1994 I hoped it would become an important source of ideas and debate about the future of Europe.
Global challenges will drive European reform
02 October 2006
When the first CER bulletin was published, almost a decade ago, the emphasis was firmly on the word ‘reform’. The EU had fulfilled its original purpose. Western Europe was an area of security, peace and, in the main, prosperity.
Democracy in Europe: How the EU can survive in an age of referendums
05 May 2006
The European Union has never been loved, but for most of the last 50 years it has been accepted. Voters thought that as long as it made them richer and safer they were happy to leave the precise details of treaties to bureaucrats and politicians.
What future for free trade in services?
03 April 2006
The controversy that has engulfed the Commission’s draft services directive is hardly surprising: the establishment of a single EU market in services was always going to generate more opposition than the liberalisation of trade in goods.
New budget, old dilemmas
22 February 2006
After months of fierce haggling, the UK government managed to broker a deal on the EU's new budget at the Union's summit in December 2005.
EU 2010: A programme for reform
03 February 2006
The European Union is suffering from a profound malaise. There have been difficult times in the past – such as the 'empty chair' left by General de Gaulle in the mid-1960s, the rows over the British budget contribution in the early 1980s, and the struggles to ratify the Maastricht treaty...
The Austrian EU presidency and the future of the constitutional treaty
24 January 2006
Austrians heaved a sigh of relief when the UK presidency brokered a last-minute deal on the EU budget in December 2005. The Austrian government hoped that the agreement would free its hands to focus on more rewarding issues during its presidency.
Why Europe deserves a better farm policy
01 December 2005
The prospects for radical CAP reform look bleak. At the time of writing (December 2005) neither the arguments over the EU budget nor pressure from major farm exporters at the world trade negotiations look likely to force the EU to reform.
A 'smart growth' strategy for sustainable development
01 November 2005
Amid the insults and recriminations which followed the collapse of the EU budget negotiations last June, few people noticed that EU leaders succeeded in reaching agreement on a new sustainable development strategy.
CAP reform can reshape the EU budget
03 October 2005
France and Britain appear irreconcilably divided over the future of the EU budget. But the arguments posed by both countries in support of their contrasting positions are flawed.
Issue 44 - 2005
30 September 2005
- Can variable geometry save EU enlargement?, Charles Grant
- CAP reform can reshape the EU budget, Lord Haskins
- An avant-garde for internal security, Hugo Brady
The EU budget: A way forward
01 September 2005
Many of the bitterest arguments in the European Union have been about money. That is partly because the budget is inherently a zero-sum game: more for one country means less for others.
A bad European dream
01 August 2005
On a grey Thursday morning in June 2006, Lee Barker, a 29-year-old Midlands businessman, was packing his bags to go to Germany.
Liberal versus social Europe
01 August 2005
Europe is in the grip of a fundamental debate about its economic future, or at least that is what some politicians and many journalists would have us believe.
Europe’s social dilemma
01 August 2005
Of all the items on the agenda of the British EU presidency, perhaps the least expected is a debate on ‘social Europe’. Tired of being crudely caricatured as ‘neoliberal’, Tony Blair has invited EU leaders to an informal summit in October to discuss the future of Europe’s social model.
Issue 43 - 2005
29 July 2005
- Liberal versus social Europe, Katinka Barysch
- A bad European dream, Daniel Keohane
- Europe’s social dilemma, Alasdair Murray