Tag: EU

Northern Ireland and the Withdrawal Agreement

Northern Ireland and the Withdrawal Agreement

Boris Johnson’s proposed withdrawal agreement with the EU, which Parliament votes on today, establishes different customs arrangements for Northern Ireland than for Great Britain, to avoid a hard border with the Republic of Ireland. Sean Swan explains how having differential arrangements for Northern Ireland and Great Britain is not novel, and is a reflection of long-existing realities in Northern Ireland’s governance. For them to have democratic legitimacy, though, the Northern Ireland Assembly needs to be reconvened.

Book Review | Europe and Northern Ireland’s Future: Negotiating Brexit’s Unique Case by Mary C. Murphy

Book Review | Europe and Northern Ireland’s Future: Negotiating Brexit’s Unique Case by Mary C. Murphy

In Europe and Northern Ireland’s Future: Negotiating Brexit’s Unique Case, Mary C. Murphy offers a multi-layered account of the consequences of the Brexit referendum vote for Northern Irish politics and the relationship with the European Union. The book’s analysis shows great sensitivity, intellectual rigour and acute understanding, writes Matthew G O’Neill.

The EU is extraordinarily complex. But do we want to simplify it?

The EU is extraordinarily complex. But do we want to simplify it?

The EU’s institutional architecture is often regarded as being too complex for citizens to properly engage with, and both Jean-Claude Juncker and Emmanuel Macron have recently proposed some form of simplification – such as merging the President of the European Commission with the President of the European Council, or shrinking the Commission. Dimiter Toshkov argues that while […]

How the EU shapes and hones its identity through the language of its treaties

How the EU shapes and hones its identity through the language of its treaties

How does the European Union shape and hone its identity? Odelia Oshri and Shaul Shenhav decipher the ways in which the EU’s discourse on values has changed throughout the 60 years of integration. They show that two values dominated the Union’s treaty texts – ‘democracy’ and ‘market economy’. However, since the 1990s, new values have penetrated […]

If you believe Brexit is a mistake, you have a democratic duty to oppose it

If you believe Brexit is a mistake, you have a democratic duty to oppose it

Is there a duty to implement the EU referendum result? Not if you believe it to be a profound mistake, argues Albert Weale. We cannot sensibly and intelligibly use the language of ‘the will of the people’ in respect of the referendum result. It is not simply a device for the registering of the preferences of […]

Book review: Slippery Slope: Europe’s Troubled Future, by Giles Merritt

Book review: Slippery Slope: Europe’s Troubled Future, by Giles Merritt

Shortlisted for the 2016 European Book Prize, in Slippery Slope: Europe’s Troubled Future journalist and analyst Giles Merritt reflects on the threats, challenges and unexpected opportunities that Europeans are likely to face as they move further into the 21st century. Simeon Mitropolitski strongly recommends this book to those pondering the future horizons of a presently troubled Europe.  Similar PostsOpen Letter […]

Big money buys influence in Brussels. Or does it?

Big money buys influence in Brussels. Or does it?

In Brussels, big corporations can buy influence – and the VW emissions scandal proved it. Or at least that’s the received opinion about lobbying. But Bas Redert looks at the relative success of big and small lobbyists and finds that public opinion, not the size of their budgets, is the salient factor when it comes […]

Idealism versus pragmatism in politics and policymaking: Labour, Brexit, and evidence-based policymaking

Idealism versus pragmatism in politics and policymaking: Labour, Brexit, and evidence-based policymaking

Paul Cairney aims to highlight some important links between three current concerns: Labour’s leadership contest, the Brexit vote built on emotion over facts, and the insufficient use of evidence in policy. In each case, there is a notional competition between ‘idealism’ and ‘pragmatism’ (as defined in common use, not philosophy); the often-unrealistic pursuit of a […]

Brexit and Northern Ireland: key issues and possible consequences

Brexit and Northern Ireland: key issues and possible consequences

In this post Alan Whysall sets out the key issues for Northern Ireland in the upcoming Brexit negotiations and examines the likely consequences. He suggests that, if things do not go well, there is a risk of the unwinding of political and social progress. It is urgent that the options for Northern Ireland are quickly […]

Open Letter to Jeremy Corbyn: Grassroots movements have a place, but they are not the key task of parliamentary opposition

Open Letter to Jeremy Corbyn: Grassroots movements have a place, but they are not the key task of parliamentary opposition

As Labour gears up for another leadership contest, Anne Power makes an appeal to Jeremy Corbyn to stand down as leader of the opposition. She writes that although she respects him as a good local MP, his divisiveness in the PLP and weak performance during the Brexit campaign indicate he is unsuited to leading the […]