This report proposes a way to break the current refugee crisis deadlock between EU Member States. The authors explore ways in which physical and financial solidarity among EU Member States can be combined and propose a mechanism that allows for an exchange of refugee-admission quotas for monetary contributions.

The negotiations of the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) between the EU and the US began in July 2013 with the ambition to conclude the negotiations before the end of President Barack Obama´s term in January 2017. This brief outlines what the parties are trying to achieve, potential sticking points, the interdependence of the EU and US economies and the potential gains of a successful agreement.

Around one million refugees and migrants are said to have made their way to Europe crossing the Mediterranean last year. The European Union is still struggling to find durable solutions to the situation, but what really applies to the handling of refugees at sea? Which set of rules govern EU-coordinated activities such as Operation Triton and Operation Sophia? In this analysis, Martin Ratcovich explains international law and EU law with bearing on the refugee flows across the Mediterranean.

Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) account for close to 70 per cent of employment in the EU. However, as they are still heavily dependent on traditional bank financing, especially in comparison with their US counterparts, the European Commission recently launched a plan for a Capital Markets Union (CMU), aiming to diversify the funding channels available to European SMEs.

The European Court of Justice plays a central role in the EU, but its importance as a political arena for conflicts regarding how to interpret the EU´s legislation is less known. In this report, based on unique material, the authors analyse how the Member States position themselves within the framework of preliminary Court rulings.

The Lisbon Treaty granted the EU with legislative power in the area of criminal law, which is a development that SIEPS has paid attention to in several previous publications.  In the current report, the author sheds new light on the area by comparing the evolving EU criminal justice law with US federal criminal justice law.

Since the Treaty of Lisbon, the EU has had an express competence in humanitarian aid. This development entails numerous legal and institutional challenges, which this timely report analyses, while identifying ways to address them.

Russia’s intervention in eastern Ukraine and annexation of Crimea in 2014 sent shock waves through Europe. It also exposed the inadequacies of the EU’s relationship with its most powerful neighbour, Russia.

Numerous bilateral investment treaties (BITs) were signed between the incumbent Member States and the Central and Eastern European Member States prior to the latter becoming full Union members. While motivated at the time, the compatibility of these BITs with the internal market is in question.

This European policy analysis provides an overview of how smuggling has been framed over time in the European Union, and questions what the effects are of criminalising human smuggling for the protection of international migrants. The author finds that policies that effectively aim at reducing human smuggling must consider the push and pull factors for migration.