Democracy and Separatism: The Flemish Example of how NOT to do it
William H. Riker once called federalism ‘the constitutionally assured potential for local government to disrupt’ (i). Disruptions of different (pre-) federal systems can certainly be witnessed...
View ArticleEULEX Audit Special Report: Discrepancy between ambition and responsible...
Kosovo is the largest per capita recipient of European Union financial aid in the world, notes the European Court of Auditors in its recent Special Report on EULEX. In spite of this, the biggest and...
View ArticleWill the upcoming reform of EU regulation of GMOs calm down the controversy...
by Maria Weimer This issue was discussed this week at a seminar organized by the Maastricht Centre for European Law in Maastricht. It refers to the recently agreed reform (see here) of the EU legal...
View ArticleShould Foreigners Vote in National Legislative Elections?
Michèle Finck, University of Oxford Next month, voters in Luxembourg will have to participate in a referendum (voting is mandatory in Luxembourg) that raises three different questions, among which is...
View ArticleWilling to Trust? : On Greek Referendum and Confidential Negotiations
In the recent news about Greece, there is one issue that keeps on resurfacing: trust. News reports will state that there is a ‘trust gap’ between Greece and the Troika, that creditors don’t trust...
View ArticleC-62/14 Gauweiler: How the ECJ avoided Stockholm syndrome but risks either a...
By Tomi Tuominen The European Court of Justice (ECJ) delivered its judgment in the much followed case Gauweiler in last June, where it found the European Central Bank’s (ECB) Outright Monetary...
View ArticleMutual Trust before the Court of Justice – a view from CJEU Judge Sacha Prechal
On 6 November 2015 Judge and Professor Sacha Prechal from the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) delivered a presentation on the concept of ‘mutual trust’ before the CJEU at Vrije...
View ArticleAutonomous EU law concepts or deference to national law? The unsteady ground...
Recent legal development, involving opinion 2/13 on the accession of the EU to the ECHR, have put the relation between the EU and its Member States’ legal systems centre stage again. As important as...
View ArticleNetherlands takes up the EU Presidency amidst both ambitions and concerns...
Last week, the European Commission met the Dutch chambers of parliament behind closed doors, at the latter’s request. Last week, the European Commission visited the Netherlands for a series of meetings...
View ArticleAusterity and Law in Europe
In the wake of the global financial crisis, which peaked in 2008, the concept of ‘austerity’ assumed center stage in European politics, polarizing domestic constituencies, and leading to the formation...
View ArticleRegional Myopia instead of Regional Blindness? The persistent obstacles for...
Regional entities are the foster children of EU law, even more so than individual persons. While the position of the latter has improved over time, and the CJEU is clearly interested in bringing them...
View ArticleThe EU deal to avoid Brexit: Is it legally binding?
One of the fiercely debated questions during the European Council summit of 18/19 February 2016 was whether the changes in the UK’s renegotiated settlement with the EU are legally binding. This follows...
View ArticleMarrying someone from outside the EU = marriage of convenience?
Ever since the 2008 CJEU Decision in Metock ruling that non-EU migrants were allowed to live with an EU national in a host state also in cases where they had no prior lawful residence in a Member...
View ArticleIs the Dutch Referendum on Ukraine Hijacking EU Foreign Policy?
On Wednesday, 6 April, in an advisory referendum on the Dutch Approval Act of the Association Agreement between the EU and the Ukraine, Dutch voters rejected the latter by 61.1 % of votes against and...
View ArticleESM conditionality in court: two Advocate Generals on 14 Cypriot appeal cases...
Yesterday, a challenge of conditionality did not find favour in the European Court. ‘Conditionality’ is another term for a ‘macro-economic adjustment programme’ that EU Member States have to accept...
View ArticleRegardless of a leave or stay vote the EU has tougher questions to address...
The first challenge on the day after the UK referendum will be to arrange the EU’s and the 27 Member States’ relationship with the UK, irrespective of the outcome. A victory of the leave campaign would...
View ArticleThe EU has a Lot to Learn from Brexit
The victory of the leave campaign, while long predicted, nonetheless came to many as a shock. The consequences of Brexit are complex and may take a decade to manifest. However, two things can already...
View ArticleIs Brexit good or bad for Eurozone decision-making? By Chris Koedooder
The EU is no stranger to crises. It is often said, at least in academic circles, that a crisis can spur necessary further integration (known in Eurojargon as ‘deepening’). At the height of the Eurozone...
View ArticleInclusion and Exclusion in the European Union – ACELG publishes policy...
Exclusion in the European Union has many different faces. It lies at the very core of identity formation, in which the self is contrasted with ‘the other’. It also has many different consequences....
View ArticlePost-CETA: How we got there and how to go on. By Pieter-Jan Kuijper
The Canadian Minister of International Trade, Christya Freeland, made a classic dramatic exit from the CETA negotiations on Friday 21 October. Many international trade negotiators over the years have...
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