Democracy Impacts

EU Prepares Demand for Brexit Payments

February 27, 2017

The Daily Telegraph reports that, according to sources from a meeting of the European Commission's top Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier and representatives from EU member states, EU leaders are planning to call on the UK to pay approximately 60 billion euros in installments until 2023 to fill EU budget gaps created by Britain's departure from the bloc.
Solana: Put EU Ahead of National Interests

February 27, 2017

Former EU High Representative for Foreign and Security Policy and Secretary-General of NATO Javier Solana calls for European countries to adopt a "European Union first" policy that would "compel" national officials to consider factors outside of "narrow national interest" in making decisions affecting their people and to help "consolidate" EU institutions.
EU Official Pushes for Eurozone Finance Minister

February 27, 2017

Reuters reports that, in a recent speech in Vienna, European Commissioner for economic and financial affairs Pierre Moscovici called for the creation of new eurozone institutions, including a finance minister who would administer a common eurozone budget, in the wake of the UK's departure from the EU.
EU Aims to Retain Fishing Access After Brexit

February 24, 2017

The Guardian reports that, in a warning signal to British voters who chose to leave the EU in part to permit the UK to take back control of its fishing policies, a leaked negotiating document from the European Parliament shows that EU officials are seeking to retain the current UK-EU balance on fishing quotas in exchange for British access to the "single market."
EU Members Fear Impacts of "Two-Speed" Bloc

February 24, 2017

The Guardian reports that officials in the Central and Eastern European Visegrad Group - Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Hungary - are increasingly opposing proposals from Western Europe to form a "two-speed" EU permitting a core area of member states to rapidly transfer their sovereignty to the EU without the interference of governments on the periphery of the bloc.
EU Committee Ramps up Vehicle Standards Testing

February 24, 2017

The European Parliament's Internal Market Committee has approved legislation, aimed at preventing a recurrence of the recent Volkswagen emissions scandal, that ramps up EU auditing of vehicle testing and the establishment of "national market surveillance programmes" to ensure adherence to the bloc's environmental and safety standards.
Committee Calls for EU-wide Alcohol Strategy

February 23, 2017

Lamenting that, so far, "alcohol policy has been left entirely to member states," the European Committee of the Regions has published recommendations calling on EU institutions to develop a Europe-wide strategy on combating the harmful impacts of alcohol.
MEPs Vote for EU Centralization Measures

February 22, 2017

Doubling down on the idea of forming "a more perfect Union" in Europe in the face of Brexit and rising nationalism, Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) have passed a set of resolutions calling for more muscular EU centralization policies, including through the creation of an EU finance minister and a common eurozone budget.
UK Peer: House of Lords Risks Legitimacy on Brexit

February 21, 2017

The Daily Mail reports that, following the UK House of Commons' passage of a bill authorizing Prime Minister Theresa May to trigger negotiations over the country's exit from the EU, former UK Chancellor of the Exchequer Lord Lamont warned that the House of Lords would risk its "survival" as an unelected body if it amended the bill to place conditions on Brexit.
Polish Leader Criticizes "Two-Speed" EU Approach

February 21, 2017

Head of the ruling Polish Law and Justice Party Jarosław Kaczyński has warned that the model of "two-speed" European integration recently suggested by several EU leaders, under which the federalization of Europe would take place more gradually in some member states than in others, would lead to the bloc's "breakdown."