The collapse of Lehman Brothers in 2008 ushered in a financial crisis whose ramifications are still being felt. Within the EU, collapse not only led to a change in regulatory rhetoric, emphasising the need to secure the stability of EU money markets, but also to a significant widening and...

In the aftermath of the financial crisis, governments in the western world resumed policy instruments from the immediate post-war period´s mixed economies. These instruments had all been abandoned in the liberalizing market economies of the last decades. How do we interpret these developments...

Under the budgetary strain of the economic crisis, many European governments have introduced spending cuts in higher education. As a consequence, universities increasingly have to rely on tuition fees and private sources of funding to sustain themselves. This development fits in with a broader...

This paper explores the extent to which current reforms of the euro-zone’s governance remain encased in the constraints of the Maastricht Treaty - the narrowness of its underlying paradigm; the gaps and imbalances of its design – and the implications for the future of the euro. With a model...

This paper explores the role played by the newly created European External Action Service as an instrument of cooperation for EU foreign policy. Using two-dimensions spatial modelling to represent decision making at 27 in a unanimity rule Foreign Affairs Council, it highlights the role of...

The paper presents a distinctive approach to cross-border ties between Europeans. In place of the standard focus on identity or trust, it recommends the study of practices of social comparison, understood as how citizens evoke relevant others for the purpose of situating and evaluating their...

What do the recent trends in German economic development convey about the trajectory of change? Has liberalization prepared the German economy to deal with new challenges? What effects will liberalization have on the coordinating capacities of economic institutions? This paper argues that...

Explanations of the dynamics of EU judicial politics must also account for its incidence, namely when and in which sectors litigation of EU law and ECJ judgments occur. This incidence, it is suggested relies on a relationship between three arenas, those for norm-setting, litigation and...

Many political scientists and economists have addressed the implications of the public sector’s sheltered status on their unions’ wage strategies vis-à-vis the government. Since the public sector is a monopoly provider of necessary and price inelastic services, conventional wisdom suggests...

In a recent decision, the European Court of Justice has ruled that insurers cannot discriminate on grounds of sex in setting premiums or determining benefits. This paper discusses the background to this decision. It asks whether we are seeing a US-style ‘rights revolution’, fuelled by...