Twenty years after the split of Czechoslovakia, expert analysts from the Czech Republic, Slovakia and the UK shed light on the political geography of this part of Central Europe in an extended three-part Commentary. The end points in the Euro-Atlantic integration processes of the successor states may be similar, argue the authors, but the journeys have been very different. Recent experience would suggest that in terms of EU politics, the Slovaks will be rather passive whilst the Czechs might be a little more troublesome.

Against the current background of a sharp decline in public support for the EU and an emerging reinforced centre to manage the euro crisis, this commentary finds that the only way Europe’s leaders can hope to keep the fragile equilibrium afloat is to summon up the courage to go forward with concrete proposals for political union.

Karel Lannoo is Chief Executive Officer and Senior Research Fellow at CEPS.

Despite several daunting obstacles, the low expectations and the high level of apprehension that accompanied the start of the Cyprus Presidency, Thomas Linders and Steven Blockmans find in a new CEPS Commentary that the small, remote and politically divided island nevertheless succeeded in scoring a number of positive results, thanks in part to the country’s pragmatic approach to the job and the perpetual motion of the EU legislature. As a corrective instrument to big state politics in the EU, however, the role of the Presidency remains limited.

As David Cameron prepares to deliver his momentous “Europe” speech, Adam Łazowski warns the British Prime Minister that a divorce from the EU will not be easy and that the decision should be based on a very thorough political, economic and legal analysis, as the consequences in all possible respects will be profound.

Adam Łazowski is Reader in Law at the School of Law, University of Westminster.

Based on interviews with diplomats from a representative cross-section of nine member states and members of the EEAS itself, the research findings of this EPIN Working Paper confirm long-standing traditions and member state perceptions of cooperation with European institutions.

Romania was on a good trajectory to meet the European standards in democracy. This process began before the country’s accession to the EU in 2007 and has continued since thanks to the Cooperation and Verification Mechanism (CVM). The recent political turmoil has put in danger this trajectory. 2012 will continue to remain a very difficult year for Romania, economically and politically, especially in light of the referendum’s result invalidating the suspension of the President and the upcoming parliamentary elections due to take place at the end of this year.

Germany’s problem is not so much that it is generally right about the need for fiscal discipline but that it has to learn how to be right: this is the most difficult issue to manage from a political standpoint.

This EPIN (European Policy Institutes Network) paper brings together contributions from a cross-section of EU member states and the Gallup World Poll survey on the question of how Germany is being viewed at this time of economic and political crisis.

The Constitutional Affairs Committee is currently reviewing the European Parliament’s Rules of Procedure to increase the effectiveness, transparency and inclusiveness of first-reading agreements under co-decision. This policy brief takes a stand as to which rules should be adopted to achieve these objectives. Given the steep rise of early agreements and Parliament’s role as a guarantor of EU legitimacy, the authors place a premium on inclusiveness and transparency.

The recent EU summit, which endorsed the treaty on stability, co-ordination and governance in the economic and monetary union, also produced one rather unexpected twist: the Prime Minister of the Czech Republic, Petr Nečas, refused to sign up to the treaty.

This report was commissioned by the Swedish Institute for European Policy Studies (SIEPS), with the aim of assessing Poland’s Council Presidency in the second half of 2011. The first part of the study looks at the evolution of Poland’s presence in the European Union since 2004. In the second part, Poland’s preparations for the Presidency are examined in detail, including the set-up of the national coordination mechanisms, the role of the Trio Presidency and programming of the priorities.

The nationals of some member states are overrepresented among the heads of EU delegations, while those from other member states are not represented at all, or are underrepresented. At the same time women still account for less than 20% of all heads of EU delegations. This paper offers a snapshot of the geographical and gender distribution of staff at the level of heads of EU delegations (HoDs).

The author Paul Ivan is a Research Assistant at the Centre for European Policy Studies.

Transparency means proactive action: by adding a provision for a legislative footprint that identifies which interest-representatives key actors met, received, and heard from, Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) have a chance to turn the EP into a role model for parliamentary transparency in a pluralistic democracy.

This paper considers the most important changes brought by the Treaty of Lisbon to the functioning of the Court of Justice of the European Union. These changes concern the internal organisation of the institution, the appointment of its members and the extension of its jurisdiction in the areas of freedom, security and justice, foreign and security policy, as well as its new power to protect fundamental rights.
 

The paper is written in French, prefaced by a two-page synopsis in English.

Despite the formal role laid out for the General Affairs Council (GAC) in the Treaties, it has been weakened since it was extracted from the General Affairs and External Relations Council (GAERC) and set up to function on its own. Its current uneven composition is leading to further marginalisation. The Policy Brief argues that reforming the GAC can bring it to the centre of gravity of the Council proceedings and address a number of problems in the current institutional structure.