COVID-19: a turning point for the EU? EPC Discussion Paper 16 April 2020

What long-term lessons can we draw from the corona crisis? Which ones must we draw? Many say that our way of life has changed so much that there will be a time before and a time after this crisis. For me, there is a distinction between values and behaviours. There is, undoubtedly, a kind of togetherness between people, grown out of the feeling that we are all in the same boat. A lot of creative energy has been released. Digitisation has prevented us from becoming alienated from each other. Social media have shown that they don’t just polarise. Their positive uses have made the new media truly social. We have also learned that we can meet remotely, collaborate and be productive

The EU’s new white paper underlines why Europe needs to be more open to its citizens

At the start of March, the European Commission published a white paper ‘On the Future of Europe’. Vivien Schmidt and Matt Wood assess the Commission’s proposals, arguing that while the paper’s focus on differentiated integration is pragmatically useful under the current circumstances, this strategy could exacerbate distrust in the EU if it is not accompanied by greater accountability and transparency in decision-making

Public opinion in the EU institutions’ discourses on EU legitimacy from the beginnings of integration to today

This article offers a long-term historical account of changing and competing references to public opinion and “what the people want”, and of the projected relationship between the two, in legitimation discourses by EU or Community institutions from the 1950s to today. It describes shifts from taking a generally permissive public opinion for granted, over an increased emphasis on the need to act upon and shape it, to a distinct turn, starting in the mid-1970s and in full swing by the 1980s, towards centring any claims regarding Community legitimacy on citizen expectations. The next chapter in the history of discourses around public opinion was marked by the growing and incontrovertible politicization and polarization of public opinion. This came to a head in the context of the constitutional, euro, refugee, and most recently Brexit crises, but was already beginning to show at the times of the Maastricht and constitutional treaties. By now the discursive balance of plausibility has irrevocably been tilted in favour of discourses acknowledging the political nature of the stakes of EU politics, as opposed to de-politicising them. The challenge is to develop mechanisms of channelling and reconciling clashing preferences, interests, and identities, recognising differences without claiming to harmonise them // L’opinion publique dans les discours des institutions européennes sur la légitimité de l’UE, des débuts de l’intégration européenne à aujourd’hui Cet article développe une perspective historique de longue durée sur les références, changeantes et concurrentes, à l’opinion publique et à “ce que veut le peuple” dans les discours de légitimation de l’UE et des institutions communautaires, des années 1950 à nos jours. Il rend compte du passage d’une première séquence, où le consensus permissif de l’opinion publique à l’égard de l’intégration européenne est tenu pour acquis, tout en insistant de plus en plus sur la nécessité d’agir sur cette opinion publique et de la façonner, à une deuxième séquence, suite à un tournant important à partir du milieu des années 1970 et surtout des années 1980, durant laquelle toutes les revendications relatives à la légitimité communautaire se fondent sur les attentes des citoyens. Le chapitre suivant dans l’histoire des discours sur l’opinion publique a été marqué par une politisation et une polarisation croissante et incontestable de cette opinion publique. Cette tendance est apparue flagrante dans le contexte des diverses crises – constitutionnelle, de l’Euro, des réfugiés, et plus récemment du Brexit – qui traversent l’UE même si elle commençait à être visible dès le traité de Maastricht et le traité constitutionnel. Désormais, l’équilibre discursif penche irrévocablement en faveur des discours reconnaissant la nature profondément politique des enjeux de la politique de l’UE, plutôt que de ceux visant à les dépolitiser. Le défi consiste alors à développer des mécanismes permettant de canaliser et de concilier des préférences, des intérêts et des identités contradictoires, en reconnaissant ces différences, sans pour autant prétendre les harmoniser

New Pact for Europe - National Report - GREECE. EPC Report, June 2017

Foreword. This report is inspired by the discussions of the Greek National Reflection Group enriched by exchanges with National Reflection Groups from France and Estonia. It reflects on the ‘state of the Union’ from a national perspective and discusses the main challenges the EU and its members are facing, taking into account both the European and national perspective. Finally, it proposes ideas and recommendations on how the EU and its members should react to these main challenges and sets out how the EU and European integration should develop in the years to come. This paper is part of a series of ten national reports. These reports and the debates in the member states will provide a solid basis for the discussions in the NPE European Reflection Group. The latter will be asked to take the reflection a step further through in-depth and thorough discussions at the European level. The Advisory Group chaired by Herman Van Rompuy will provide input into this process. All these reflections will lead to a final NPE report that analyses the current ‘state of the Union’ and contains several proposals on how to re-energise the European project. It will be published at the end of 2017

Explaining Crises and Comparing Regionalisms

This paper deals with two litmus tests for theories of European integration. The first part asks, how and to what extent various approaches can explain the contemporary crises of European integration. It thereby tackles the question whether European integration theories might have biased EU scholars towards ignoring evidence for (dis-)integration. While being more optimistic about the state of the Union than many EU scholars are, the paper argues for a more differentiated conceptualization of integration as a continuous variable that takes disintegration rather than stagnation or no integration as the opposite value of integration. The second part of the paper asks to what extent European integration theories are able to shed light on experiences with regionalism across the globe. It argues that they do provide plausible accounts for the emergence of regionalism around the world. Comparing regions points to important scope conditions under which European integration theories operate. When it comes to outcomes, however, they need to be complemented by explanations emphasizing diffusion to explain why and when states are more inclined to pool and delegate sovereignty in some regions than in others

Polycrisis : prompts for an emerging worldview

Taking the realms of business, finance and economic history by storm, polycrisis captures the complexity of an increasingly uncertain world in a state of flux and transition. Proponents of the polycrisis model, such as prominent economic historian and Financial Times contributing editor Adam Tooze, propose polycrisis as a marker of our age, capturing overlapping and interconnected crises beyond cause and effect. In his article, the authors offer some prompts for considering the usefulness and limitations of polycrisis for the anthropological toolkit. The authors cautiously welcome the polycrisis trope as a multidimensional means to account for the consequences of interrelated crises in an unprecedented era.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe

Direct Democracy in the EU –The Myth of a Citizens’ Union. CEPS Paperback, November 2018

The European Union has a democracy problem. The polycrisis that has plagued the EU for years has led to a cacophony of voices calling for fundamental change to the integration project. Yet despite the shock of the Brexit referendum and the electoral upsets caused by nativist parties across the continent, few of the plans for EU reform include concrete proposals to address the perennial democratic deficit. This book looks at how the relationship between citizens, the state and EU institutions has changed in a multi-layered Union. As such, it focuses more on polity than on populism, and does not engage deeply with policy or output legitimacy. Building on the notion of increasing social, economic and political interdependence across borders, this book asks whether a sense of solidarity and European identity can be rescued from the bottom up by empowering citizens to ‘take back control’ of their Union. Direct Democracy in the EU: The Myth of a Citizens’ Union is part of the 'Towards a Citizens’ Union' project and is the product of collaboration with 20 renowned think tanks from the European Policy Institutes Network (EPIN). It is the first of three publications that will also cover the state of representative democracy in the EU and the accountability of democratic institutions

Bodily undoing: somatics as practices of critique

This co-authored volume of The Journal for Dance and Somatic Practices (JDSP) focuses on construction and articulating the field of Somatics as critical practices. Glenna Batson (2017) argues towards the need for a new critique to fully address Somatics in the face of neoliberal globalization and an increasing planetary poly-crisis. How do we locate our embodied practices beyond commodification as critical and empowering practices? How do we question relevance, access, inclusion, and modes of knowledge production within our work? How do we articulate a critical stance toward elitism, Euro-centrism and under-theorisation historically associated with the field? Somatic practices can be understood as reflective processes of undoing existing patterns so that new ones can emerge. How can this transformative undoing be extended beyond the body of the individual to the body politic or the social body? How might we construct Somatics and affiliated transdisciplinary arts practices as practices of critique that might contribute to an alternative social imaginary or way of world-making? Can somatic processes and performance practices foster a capacity for self-reflection and criticality as feature of the ‘democratic citizen’ as ‘a member of the body politic’ (Morin 1999) within growing totalitarian socio-cultural contexts

MIGRATION PANORAMA. Schengen in the spotlight: a Europe with or without borders? APRIL 2016 (First edition)

The first edition of this new multi-authored publication entitled ‘Migration Panorama’ focuses on the consequences of the refugee and migration crisis on the Schengen area and the concept of a borderless union. Several external and EPC authors have contributed to building a comprehensive picture on the manifold challenges and possible consequences of maintaining and/or returning to internal border controls among Schengen countries. How does a signatory of the Schengen agreement see the current developments? What would be the impact of the reintroduction of physical borders on Europe’s digital economy? In what way do the V4 countries envisage to solve the ‘Schengen crisis’? How dangerous are the empty threats to expel Greece out of the Schengen area? What is the symbolic meaning of the Belgian border controls following the French decision to dismantle parts of the Calais ‘jungle’? Is saving Schengen only a question of national sovereignty or a matter of shared European responsibility? All these questions and many others are tackled in this first issue of the ‘Migration Panorama’ produced by EPC’ s Migration and Diversity Programme

A Philanthropic Theory of Systems Transformation for Advancing Equity in the Polycrisis

The term “polycrisis” calls attention to overlapping, mutually reinforcing, and potentially disastrous trends and crises that are interconnected, like climate change, increasing global inequities, widespread disinformation, pandemic dangers, the ravages of war, and pollution of land, air, and water. Vulnerable and marginalized populations are most directly affected by the intensifying problems that are manifested in the polycrisis. This article, on the occasion of the 15th anniversary of The Foundation Review, invites readers to ponder the risks posed by the polycrisis and how philanthropy might look beyond business as usual to respond to those risks. We review the evolution of philanthropic program design and evaluation over the last quarter century to arrive at a philanthropic theory of systems transformation that might be one potential response to the challenges of the polycrisis. Multiple, integrated theories of change implemented through collective action and philanthropic alliances offer potential pathways to systems transformation. We offer this version of and perspective on the evolution of philanthropic engagement to stimulate dialogue about where philanthropy has come from, where it is now, and what the future may hold. To stimulate that dialogue, we offer four premises to ponder about the implications of the polycrisis and raise four corresponding questions to address going forward