EU legitimacyEU's Rubik's cubeGermany & the EU
  • Can national parliaments make the EU more legitimate?
    Insight by Charles Grant, 10 June 2013
    Can national parliaments make the EU more legitimate?
  • The EU's Rubik's cube: Who will lead after 2014?
    Insight by Hugo Brady, 03 April 2013
    The EU's Rubik's cube: Who will lead after 2014?
  • Germany’s plans for treaty change – and what they mean for Britain
    Insight by Charles Grant, 28 March 2013
    Germany & Treaty change
  • Portugal's presidency
    Briefing note by Katinka Barysch, 09 July 2007

    On 1 July 2007, Portugal took over the EU's rotating presidency from Germany. Angela Merkel's six months at the helm will be a tough act to follow.
  • Hurrah for an end to EU navel gazing
    Briefing note by Hugo Brady, 28 June 2007

    European leaders will open negotiations on a new EU 'reform treaty' on 23 July 2007. At a cliffhanger summit last weekend, German Chancellor Angela Merkel worked hard to accommodate national concerns that threaten to derail the new treaty.
  • Why treaty change matters for business and for Britain
    Policy brief by Charles Grant, Hugo Brady, 21 May 2007

    If Britain blocks Germany's plans to forge an agreement on a new EU treaty, the consequences would be grim, according to this policy brief published by the Centre for European Reform and Business for New Europe.
  • Britain and the EU: a crisis looms
    Bulletin article by Charles Grant, 02 April 2007

    British politicians are too complacent about Germany’s plan to salvage large parts of the EU constitutional treaty. They assume that other countries will reject the German presidency’s scheme, so sparing Britain from isolation.
  • The view from 2027
    Briefing note by Charles Grant, 22 March 2007

    Given how much respect and esteem most Europeans feel for the EU today, one can easily forget that when it celebrated its 50th birthday, in 2007, it was widely disliked and mistrusted.

  • What is wrong with Lisbon?
    Insight by Aurore Wanlin, 09 March 2007

    The Lisbon agenda embodies a paradox. Progress made by the member-states has been slow and patchy. The German presidency in the first half of 2007 is playing down Lisbon, fearing that the process has been discredited by the EU’s failure to meet its targets.
  • Time to shake up the European Council
    Bulletin article by David Harrison, 01 February 2007

    The European Council, the EU’s supreme political authority, is malfunctioning. Europe’s most powerful leaders meet four times a year in the Council to review the EU’s work and and give political direction to the Commission, Parliament and Council of Ministers.
  • What to expect from the German presidency
    Briefing note by Katinka Barysch, 03 January 2007

    On 1 January 2007, Germany took over the rotating EU presidency. Chancellor Angela Merkel has ambitious goals, most notably an EU agreement on what to do with the Union’s moribund constitutional treaty.