Democracy Impacts

Open Europe: EU Regulations Impose High Costs on U.K.

March 18, 2015

Think tank Open Europe has published research demonstrating that the 100 most burdensome EU-derived regulations cost the British economy over £33 billion per year.
Crook: EU Bank's Lack of Accountability Endangers Bloc

March 18, 2015

Clive Crook argues that the lack of accountability of citizens of eurozone countries over the European Central Bank is part of a "democratic deficit" that may endanger the entire EU project.
Tusk Deems EU Treaty Change "Mission Impossible"

March 16, 2015

European Council President Donald Tusk has labeled the U.K. Government's prospects of amending EU treaties "mission impossible" but says he will work with Britain to generate limited changes in the country's relationship with the EU.
Iceland Pulls out of EU Accession Negotiations

March 13, 2015

Minister for Foreign Affairs of Iceland Gunnar Bragi Sveinsson has announced that the country does not intend to restart negotiations to become a member of the EU.
Thornton: "EU Experiment Has Failed"

March 13, 2015

Bruce Thornton of the Hoover Institution writes that due to the crumbling of unifying beliefs such as patriotism and Christianity, the experiment of the European Union is failing, and the U.S. may be next.
EU Official Aims to Reassure Britain on Immigration

March 11, 2015

First Vice-President of the European Commission Frans Timmermans has stated that EU legislation does not prohibit U.K. rules restricting migrants' access to social security and has called on the EU to "limit action to where it is urgently needed."
EU Official Pushes United European Foreign Policy

March 11, 2015

In a recent speech in the U.K., EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs Federica Mogherini labeled the EU a "superpower" and indicated her hopes, by the end of her five-year term, to see "Europe speak with one voice and one flag" on foreign policy.
Abulafia: Europe "Myth" Prevents Reform

March 04, 2015

In an article announcing the launch of a project called Historians for Britain, Professor David Abulafia argues that the myth of "Europeanness," which he says has never actually existed, is holding back the reform of the EU's institutional problems and a renegotiated U.K. relationship with the bloc.
Euroskeptic Party Enters Assembly in Hamburg

February 25, 2015

The Economist reports that Alternative for Germany ("AfD") has entered its first assembly in West Germany as the euroskeptic party and the liberal Free Democrats have attracted voters from German Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democratic Union.
U.K. Euroskeptics See WTO as Alternative to EU

February 20, 2015

Participants at a conference on alternatives to EU membership held in London examined increased reliance on membership in the World Trade Organization ("WTO") and the ability to negotiate trade deals without the consent of other EU member states as advantages of leaving the EU.