The Barroso Drama: Pöttering and Schulz Take Over Action and Inaction of National Politics in the Making of the Barroso Commission

This publication is with permission of the rights owner freely accessible due to an Alliance licence and a national licence (funded by the DFG, German Research Foundation) respectively.Appointment of European Commission and German Constitution. Influence EPP's electoral victory and German internal politics on Barroso's appointment. Socialist Verheugen accepted by rightwing German politicians. Role of national politicians and German MEPs in Buttiglione crisis.Peer Reviewe

Mixity after Opinion 2/15: Judicial Confusion over Shared Competences

In its momentous opinion about the Singapore free trade agreement, the ECJ seemed to have eliminated the option of ‘facultative’ EU-only agreements which do not embrace ISDS. It seems to me that this overlooks an important novelty of Opinion 2/15, which gave explicit judicial blessing to the option of ‘facultative’ EU-only agreements, although the Court hides the innovation behind an inconsistent use of the notion of ‘shared’ powers