Image: Vince Fleming/Unsplash In separate referenda in 2005, French and Dutch citizenry rejected the “Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe”. The Constitutional Treaty intended to bring the European Union (EU) — a unique international organization because its Member States give it the exercise of political power — closer to the idea of a State. From…
Image credit: Franki Chamaki/Unsplash Una breve analisi di polarizzazione e logiche regionali a partire dai dati della Voting Advice Application euandi2019 Le campagne elettorali del Parlamento europeo si concentrano spesso sulle questioni nazionali più importanti in ciascuno Stato membro, piuttosto che su argomenti che rientrano effettivamente nelle competenze del Parlamento. Ma se dovessimo immaginare queste…
Image credit: Adobe Stock/bettysphotos The Dublin Regulation (Reg 604/2013 or “Dublin III”), in force since 1 January 2014, is one of the regulations that has been developed for matters of asylum. The topic found momentum with the adoption of the Treaty of Lisbon in 2009, which broadened the competences of the EU in terms of…
Image credit: Valdas Miskinis/Pixabay The Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU) determines the powers of the institutions of the European Union (EU) to legislate and adopt legally-binding acts, also called competencies (Art. 2 TFEU). The EU has three types of competencies: Exclusive competencies– where only the EU can legislate (for example, customs…
Image credit: Falling whistles brief case, WoodSmithe/CreativeCommons On 13 June 1971, one of the most influential newspapers of the United States published a series of secret documents about the Vietnam War. These contained governmental information stating that, although the United States was not going to win the War, it would continue sending troops and investing…
Image: TheAndrasBarta/Pixabay Over the course of recent years, the EU has stumbled from one crisis to the next. Financial issues, migration and Brexit are just some of the aspects most frequently discussed in public and academic discourse. I was given the opportunity to converse with students from all over Europe about the current state of…
Image credit: Bruno Martins/Unsplash I contatti tra persone di culture, storie e lingue diverse divengono ogni giorno più frequenti, e le cause sono molteplici. Tra gli incommensurabili motivi che hanno favorito giorno dopo giorno questo continuo contatto culturale possiamo sicuramente riconoscere, in ambito più ristretto rispetto a un discorso mondiale, il costante e continuo allargamento…
Image: Adobe Stock/1STunningART One hundred years after the first women achieved the right to vote and sit in parliament in many European states, the data shows that women continue to be under-represented in politics and public life in the European Parliament, national parliaments and governments, and local assemblies. However, after the most recent European elections…
Image: pixabay The Dutch political scientist Cas Mudde recently said that populism has become ‘the concept that defines our age’, and the electoral surges of right-wing populist parties have been branded a ‘populist zeitgeist’. Yet populism is a slippery concept, featuring both the right and the left: next to right-wing parties such as, among others,…
Image: Blanton Museum of Art/Unsplash Any territory where political power is exercised is obliged to create in its citizenry a sense of belonging. This sense of belonging to the territory, called identity, allows a political entity to obtain legitimacy. Through this legitimacy, such a political entity ensures its own existence because the citizenry accepts the…
