Even though the Member States are ambitious in setting the agenda for the EU, they are less keen to provide the funding necessary to meet these ambitions. Indeed, if the EU seriously sought to attain all goals and ambitions of the Member States, it would easily swallow large parts if not all of the EU’s combined GNI.
At the end of last year, the Hungarian parliament adopted a new media law. It was met by strong reactions and believed – among other things - to constitute a threat to the freedom of the press and being incompatible with EU law.
Sovereignty over the Economic and Monetary Union, EMU, is divided. Monetary policy is unified at the European level while economic policy is in essence national.
In the aftermath of the financial crisis, a vast amount of economic analysis and a sizeable number of reforms in the financial markets have followed. In this report, Professor Henry Montgomery takes the analysis one step further by examining the psychological explanations behind the crisis.
The Commission’s Fifth Cohesion Report provides a wealth of new data on social, economic and territorial trends in Europe. This gives an excellent basis for discussing the future of cohesion policy, but the questions asked by the Commission in its consultation are too narrow.
The European Commission recently launched a discussion on the architecture of direct payments, with a view to rethinking the philosophy of agricultural regulation within the EU. The debate has been pursued under the Swedish EU Presidency.
In order to better understand the Swedish Presidency of the European Union, SIEPS invited a number of experts on the European Union from different member states. They were asked to write short analytical texts on how the Presidency has succeeded in relation to expectations and ambitions.
Circular migration has become a central concept for the future EU migration policy, implying that migrants should be encouraged to move repeatedly between the country of origin and the host country. The basic purpose is to utilise international labour mobility to make both countries’ economies more efficient.
The Eastern Partnership (EaP) was launched in May this year as a strengthened policy framework between the European Union and six countries in Eastern Europe and southern Caucasus. The overall aim of the partnership is to ensure stability and prosperity in a region that is characterized by stalled socio-economic and democratic reforms as well as ethnic tension and even armed conflict.
The automotive industry has been hit hard by the global economic crisis and governmental financial support and rescue packages have been launched in different countries. This European Policy Analysis by Rikard Forslid discusses the economic arguments for governmental support of the car industry.