ELIAMEP has become actively involved with the Policy Network in London and the European Institute of the London School of Economics and Political Science in the project “An EU ‘fit for purpose’ in a global age”.

The projects focus is on four research and policy clusters:

• Enlargement, neighbourhood and identity
• Internal security and migration
• Economic governance in the single market and eurozone
• Competitiveness, sustainability (demographic as well as environmental) and social cohesion

In each of these clusters, the project address the following questions:

• Is it a valid assumption that current economic, social and cultural trends demand a new, more coherent and consistent EU policy framework?
• What are the “pros” and “cons” of further EU integration in the respective areas?
• What are the critical policy choices to be made, reflecting a political judgement of where policy progress may be possible?
• What is the degree of convergence of interests and values within the EU in these areas and are differences the product of inter-country or partisan divisions?
• Would it be possible to justify further steps in EU integration to the European public? And if so, how might their legitimacy be enhanced?

Through a series of seminars in different European countries, including Greece, two high-profile conferences in London and Brussels, and the participation of leading European academics and politicians, this initiative will lead to a collective volume of policy papers on a wide range of EU policy choices post-2009.

For more information visit the Policy Network Website

Addressing the question of “what kind of Europe” is “fit for purpose” in the global age, Policy Network in association with the European Institute of the London School of Economics and ELIAMEP have held a high-level roundtable discussion on the future of the European Union on October 17th and 18th, 2008, in the island of Hydra in Greece. A substantial seminar report summarising the key arguments and analyses arising from the discussion is now available. [More..]

Athens 20 October 2006

ELIAMEP organised a lecture by Mr. Olli Rehn, Commissioner for Enlargement on Europe’s next transformation: Enlargement and the future of the EU. Read the transcript of Mr. Rehn’s speech… [More..]

Athens 9 March 2006

ELIAMEP’s Annual Lecture 2006 honoured Dr. Olli Rehn, EU Commissioner for Enlargement, who spoke on

“Deepening and Enlarging: The False Dichotomy“

At a time when the European Union is further expanding and countries such as Turkey are being accepted for eventual membership, the question of what is meant by a unified Europe and how that might be achieved has never been more pressing. Europe is more than a system or rules and political institutions than regulate European citizenship: it is also a space of political traditions, political experiences and cultural memories. Can political integration ever be realized without an understanding and acceptance of the complexity of the political cultures that make up Europe? In this important volume, European scholars from a diversity of backgrounds explore the issues that must be addressed if the challenge of an integrated Europe is to be successfully met.

In the paper Janis A. Emmanouilidis, Stavros Costopoulos Research Fellow at ELIAMEP, argues that the European Union requires more different speeds if an EU 27+ wants to remain effective. The increasing economic, financial, social and geopolitical heterogeneity among EU countries, diverging political objectives and expectations concerning the future path of integration, and the need to respond to the pressure from third countries aiming to join the European club while enlargement fatigue is widespread call for a higher degree of differentiation. The question is not whether there will be a differentiated Europe, but how it will or rather how it should look like.

Full text available in english only.

In the first issue of ELIAMEP Thesis Janis A. Emmanouilidis discusses the prospects for differentiated integration in an EU 27+. The author argues that the European Union (EU) will require different speeds, if the enlarged and politically, economically and geopolitically more heterogeneous EU wants to remain effective. Emmanouilidis holds that the future path of differentiation will not be dominated by one single model of differentiation. In practice, we are rather likely to witness the application of many and diverse types of flexible integration, ranging from the creation of a new separate Union to very limited forms of closer cooperation between a small group of EU members within and outside the EU framework. But which path towards a more differentiated Europe should be followed? Which forms of differentiated integration should be avoided and which preferred? Emmanouilidis formulates nine recommendations to answers these questions.

Download the paper – PDF

Paper published by Janis A. Emmanouilidis, Stavros Costopoulos Research Fellow at ELIAMEP, and Ruby Gropas, Research Fellow at ELIAMEP, in Think Global – Act European (TGAE): The Contribution of European Think Tanks to the French, Czech and Swedish Trio Presidencies of the European Union, Paris 2008.

The report is the outcome of a project directed by Notre Europe and the Fondation pour l’innovation politique. For more about this project see here.

Downloads

Janis A. Emmanouilidis and Ruby Gropas, Combining Pragmatism and Vision – The Future of EU Enlargement

Janis A. Emmanouilidis et Ruby Gropas: L’Élargissement de l’UE: concilier pragmatisme et ambition

On 14 May 2008 the members of the L’Esprit de Sel Group, a group invited by Marek Siwiec, Vice-President of the European Parliament, presented a report – Giving Globalisation a European Face – in the European Parliament in Brussels. The report discusses and gives recommendations on how the European Union should react to the multifaceted challenges of globalisation.

The Group consists of: Carl-Fredrik Bergström, Senior Fellow at the Swedish Institute for European Policy Studies (SIEPS), Lecturer at Stockholm University, Stockholm; Janis A. Emmanouilidis, Stavros Costopoulos Research Fellow at ELIAMEP, Athens; Lykke Fries, Pro-Rector of the University of Copenhagen; Christophe Hillion, Professor of European Law and co-director of the Europa Institute, Leiden University, Leiden; Paul Hofheinz, President of The Lisbon Council, Brussels; Gaetane Ricard-Nihoul, Secretary General of Notre Europe, Paris; Pawel Swieboda, Director of demosEUROPA, Warsaw; and Tamas Szemler, Deputy Director, Institute for World Economy, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Budapest.