The conference “Effects of multilevel governance” brings together cutting-edge research on the political, social, and cultural consequences of multilevel governance.The conference explores three themes: (a) How does multilevel governance affect the structure of political conflict; (b) How does multilevel governance affect ethno-territorial conflict; (c) How does multilevel governance affect social solidarity, including with immigrants? Each theme asks investigators to bring empirical evidence to bear. While most analysis has been concerned with the causes of multilevel governance, this conference asks what can we learn by considering the consequences of the architecture of governance.

Organisers:

Liesbet Hooghe
Gary Marks

PROGRAMME

European Parliament (EP) elections in May 2019 come at a critical time in the evolution of the EU. They were supposed to be the first elections after the anticipated departure of the UK, before the failed ratification of a withdrawal agreement imposed that the UK, too, must hold European elections. They also come at a time when divergence on many issues characterise member state   relations, and wider global developments weigh heavily on Europe with the return of hard geopolitics and efforts to undermine the global multilateral order. The election results are expected to produce a highly fragmented Parliament, with the long-dominant centre-left and centre-right blocs unable to form a coalition by themselves, therefore assigning greater influence to smaller players such as the Liberals, Greens and populists. Eurosceptics are expected to win a third of the Parliament’s seats, reflecting the global rise in nationalism. As an international hub of high quality research and reflection on the European Union, the European Governance and Politics Programme has contributed to the build-up to the European elections with a two-pillar project: euandi2019, an online Voting Advice Application allowing citizens to match their policy preferences with the positions of the political parties running for EP elections in all 28 Member States, and spaceu2019, an interactive database informing users on their electoral rights and to allowing them to compare the conditions and requirements for voting in their country of residence and citizenship.

Speakers:

Prof. Hanspeter Kriesi (EUI – Department of Political and Social Sciences)

Prof. Elias Dinas (EUI – Department of Political and Social Sciences)

Prof. Liesbet Hooghe (UNC -Chapel Hill)

Giorgia Bulli (University of Florence)

Organisers:

Brigid Laffan (EUI – Director of the Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies)

Lorenzo Cicchi (EUI – Robert Schuman Centre)

PROGRAMME

REGISTRATION

Since the mid-1980s, the EU has engaged in a “liberal de-bordering” process of removing or perforating the borders of the Union and the member states in the interest of market expansion, democracy promotion and transnational community building. In the “polycrisis” of the EU, this policy has come under pressure from the inside and the outside because of its own functional deficiencies and by the spread of nationalist and populist governments within the EU and in its international environment. Re-bordering can take different directions, however. Whereas it may lead to disintegration – the re-establishment of national borders between the member states – it could also produce more integration through the hardening external borders, while keeping internal borders open. The contributions to the workshop will examine and assess “re-bordering” in a variety of policy areas and across a variety of political actors and fora.

Organiser: Prof. Frank Schimmelfennig (ETH Zürich)

In 2020, the European Consortium for Political Research (ECPR) will celebrate its 50th anniversary and will publish an anniversary volume on the origins and development of European Political Science. The anniversary volume is an endeavor from a large range of leading figures in the discipline who have joined forces to provide a critical assessment of the achievements and challenges lying ahead for European Political Science.In the workshop, authors will do a short presentation of the main argument of their draft chapter followed by an interactive discussion with the audience. We are thrilled to run the workshop at the EUI and have the opportunity to engage with the EUI community and beyond about the development of our discipline.

Everybody is welcome to attend!

The workshop will tackle successes and challenges for the future of our discipline. As disciplines go, 50 years is a short period of time. Yet, this half-century has been a defining period for the development of political science in Europe: disciplinary norms have emerged and become institutionalized in training and research units and in professional organizations – such as the ECPR; the scholarly community and production have dramatically grown across the continent; the sophistication of the analytical and methodological tools of the discipline has significantly increased and the knowledge production and exchange disseminated under the label “political science” is bigger than it has ever been. Yet European political science remains fragile and challenged at several levels. On the professional level, political science remains heavily centered on Western European paradigms and to a large extent dominated by its more traditional constituencies (white, senior, and male scholars). On the intellectual level, tensions between advocates of different paradigms, methods, and subdisciplines has challenged disciplinary unity as well as its ability to speak authoritatively to the public at large. Ultimately, on the political level, the discipline has been subjected to increasing pressures that, in extreme cases, go as far as putting its very existence under threat.

Organisers:

Prof. Isabelle Engeli (University of Exeter)

Dr Diego Garzia (EUI – RSCAS and University of Luzern)

Prof. Thibaud Boncourt (University Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne)

PROGRAMME

REGISTRATION

Differentiated Integration

As envisioned in the Commission’s March 2017 White Paper on the Future of Europe, differentiation – or as the Commission labeled it the “those who want more, do more” model – would involve coalitions of willing states moving ahead with cooperation in areas they see as advantageous, without forcing those who prefer not to participate to join in. But is differentiated integration desirable? In which areas, and why?

Speakers:

Frank Schimmelfennig | Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (EHT), Zürich

Sergio Fabbrini | LUISS

Discussant:

Sandra Kröger | EUI

Conversations for the Future of Europe | January – June 2019

Objective: To guide the steps of the European Union and to mobilise its citizens so as to make policy change possible, it is not sufficient to analyse the past and criticise the present. It is necessary to develop concrete proposals for a better future and to subject them to critical multidisciplinary discussion. The Conversations for the Future of Europe aim to contribute to such discussion.
The focus of our Conversations will be to consider concrete and politically feasible projects which may guide the future development of the Union. A concern for political applicability, however, is compatible with creativity and boldness. Indeed, it may require it.

Format: Each Conversation will focus on one issue manifesting as a major challenge to the EU. The issue will be briefly introduced by two presenters, each presenting a brief proposal for how to address this challenge. Presentations will be followed by comments from one or two discussants after which, there will be a general discussion.

Output: The aim of the Conversations is to facilitate debate and inspire far-sighted, creative ideas for how to address current policy problems. However, we wish to share those ideas with a wider community. We will therefore invite all presenters to publish their contributions on our online blog. It is also our intention that some Conversations will be developed into more substantive pieces and published as debate sections in academic journals such as the Journal of European Public Policy (with whom we are in contact).

The Conversations for the Future of Europe are organised in collaboration with the ERC-funded project EUSOL.