Hitching horses to get the most work done

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Partisan politics and electoral procedure at the European level: The implications of the Spitzenkandidaten for the development of European parliamentarism

From a constitutional perspective, two objectives were at the origin of the idea to have the Presidential candidates for the European Commission selected by European party leaders. The principal idea was to provide European political parties with an important task and thus to convince citizens that they have a choice on the next European political agenda and that there is more to the EU than summits of heads of state or government. Derived from this it was hoped that turnout in the 2014 elections would benefit from the increased attention given to the electoral campaign. Decreasing voter participation in European elections has been a recurring theme in European studies and the theory of the EU’s political legitimacy, while electoral studies have provided some limited guidance how to make the European elections a "first-order" event. As overall turnout in 2014 barely budged compared to the 2009 elections, the goal to stimulate citizens' interest was attained only in some Member States. The paper will defend the proposition that one crucial factor to change this is a more influential role of European political parties, requiring a solid institutionalisation, notably through the new party statute agreed at the end of the 7th parliamentary term. In this context, some national case law impinging on European electoral procedure is discussed as an important constraint for giving Euro-parties stronger roots in national politics. On the basis of an assessment of the innovations introduced for the 2014 elections, such as the competitive appointment of candidates for the Commission presidency, the paper will also scrutinise the viability of further efforts to mobilise the European electorate in times of constitutional fatigue, diversity of national traditions and Eurosceptic political entrepreneurs

Towards a more representative European democracy: the role of reformed electoral procedures

The argument of this paper proceeds in four steps. In the first part it recapitulates that representation is a multifaceted concept, closely related to issues of accountability and responsiveness, which does not lend itself easily to develop practical rules for appropriately and directly representing EU citizens. A second part deals with the problem that democracy has not been a legal or normative concept which determined the early stages of European integration. However, since the signing of the Maastricht treaty we have witnessed a series of genuine attempts to go beyond regulatory matters and to create a political system with democratic credentials, protection of individual rights and means of political participation. Some of these have taken the shape of constitutional reform, not always successful, others came in the guise of more modest steps of institutional change. Thirdly, the impact of such practical reforms is demonstrated, especially the design of electoral rules and related aspects of the construction of a transnational political community. A final section addresses the thorny question whether the European Union should become a more politicized system, providing an assessment of the virtues and possible pitfalls of politicization

Gewerbeflächenpolitik im Standortwettbewerb: Theorie und praktische Evidenz

Als wichtigstes Instrument der kommunalen Wirtschaftsförderung ist - mangels geeigneter und rechtlich zulässiger Alternativen - die Gewerbeflächenpolitik anzusehen. Welche Ziele verfolgen die Kommunen mit der Vergabe von Gewerbeflächen? Eine Befragung in 15 deutschen Großstädten gibt Aufschluß darüber, wie dieses Instrument von kommunalpolitischer Seite angewendet wird. Welchen Kriterien unterliegt die Gewerbeflächenvergabe? Wie ist die Gewerbeflächenpolitik aus ökonomischer Sicht zu beurteilen? --

Managing Disintegration: How the European Parliament Responded and Adapted to Brexit

Brexit makes both a direct and an indirect impact on the European Parliament (EP). The most direct consequence is the withdrawal of the 73-member strong UK contingent and the changing size of the political groups. Yet, the impact of Brexit is also felt in more oblique ways. Focussing on the role and influence of the EP in the EU–UK negotiations, and of the British delegation in the EP, this article shows that the process, and not just the outcome of Brexit, has significant organisational implications for the EP and its political groups. Moreover, it also showcases the importance of informal rules and norms of behaviour, which were affected by Brexit well ahead of any formal change to the UK status as a Member State. The EP and its leadership ensured the active involvement of the EP in the negotiating process—albeit in different ways for the withdrawal agreement and the future relationship—and sought to minimise the costs of Brexit, reducing the clout of British members particularly in the allocation of legislative reports

The role of the European Parliament in managing Brexit

What influence did the European Parliament have in the Brexit negotiations? How did Brexit affect the distribution of power inside the European Parliament? In this post, Edoardo Bressanelli, Nicola Chelotti and Wilhelm Lehmann analyse the role of the European Parliament in managing Brexit

Accelerated Benders Decomposition for Variable-Height Transport Packaging Optimisation

This paper tackles the problem of finding optimal variable-height transport packaging. The goal is to reduce the empty space left in a box when shipping goods to customers, thereby saving on filler and reducing waste. We cast this problem as a large-scale mixed integer problem (with over seven billion variables) and demonstrate various acceleration techniques to solve it efficiently in about three hours on a laptop. We present a KD-Tree algorithm to avoid exhaustive grid evaluation of the 3D-bin-packing, provide analytical transformations to accelerate the Benders decomposition, and an efficient implementation of the Benders sub problem for significant memory savings and a three order of magnitude runtime speedup

The Mangum terrace

Caption title.Digitized 2007 AES MoU

Walter Hallstein : first president of the Commission and visionary of European integration

When Walter Hallstein became the first President of the European Economic Community Commission, in 1958, a long career already lay behind him: legal scholar, university professor, research manager, diplomat and German government representative at the conferences drafting the founding treaties of the European Coal and Steel Community and then the European Economic Community. The federalist ideas he developed and the emphasis he placed on supranational institutions remain among his most important legacies. Equally significant was his administrative capacity to build an institution of a completely new type and to anticipate policies that seemed utopian at the time but turned out to be necessary many years later. This impetus to push for further integration earned Hallstein strong opposition from several national leaders, and eventually led to his precipitous departure. This briefing recalls three principal aspects of Hallstein's life: as a scholar and research administrator, as a protagonist of German foreign policy and, of course, as a crucial architect of the early period of European integration

Self-feeders for fattening swine

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