The new Hungarian Constitution – that entered into force in January 2012 – has faced widespread international criticism. This analysis intends to explain why that is the case and views the debate from a legal and constitutional perspective.

The Greek general election of 6 May 2012 resulted in strong electoral support for political parties other than those traditionally in power. It confirmed a widespread discontent with the austerity policies, but still a majority of the voters expressed a desire to remain a member of the Eurozone.

The United Kingdom is one of the European Union’s more reluctant members. A domestic debate has indeed started on EU competences, and a possible referendum on membership.

Announced in 2011, the proposal for reforming the European Unions’ Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) marks an important shift of emphasis of the policy objectives, towards environmental sustainability. It describes the conservation of marine biological resources as a fundamental pillar of the CFP and, for the first time, sets forth a quantifiable target — the maximum sustainable yield (MSY) — to be achieved within a set time perspective.

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.

Can organised interests be of help in bringing the EU closer to its citizens? In this SIEPS report the issue is examined by studying the process that produced the new regulatory system for chemicals (REACH). The conclusion is that participation of interest organisations contributed to better and more well-balanced decisions.

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.

In this analysis, the authors scrutinizes the method of the Court of Justice of the European Union when balancing diverging or even opposing interests protected by EU law. The starting point is two joined cases, where the two authors are critical of the Court’s reasoning and argues that the Court sacrifices the fundamental interest of transparency in order to protect other interests, especially the protection of personal data.

Improved quality of regulation and legislation is now a pronounced objective at European as well as national level. The European Commission have for some years now tried to convince EU member states to reduce the administrative burdens – especially for companies – and make regulatory impact assessment an integrated part of their regulatory process.

The process of reforming the legislation in the area of financial services in the EU has been going on since the late 1990´s. This analysis presents a brief history on that process.