Brexit negotiations, democratic backsliding and strategic questions are the topics in the new issue of integration
The first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic seems to be abating, but there is no time to take a breath. The heads of state or government are now doing everything they can to get the ailing economy back on its feet. The Commission’s ambitious proposal for the “Next Generation EU” reconstruction fund gives respective evidence. In addition to this major challenge, other pressing issues have gained rather than lost relevance during the COVID-19 pandemic. The current issue 2/2020 of the quarterly magazine integration contains in-depth analyses and exciting perspectives on European policy and integration research.
Nicolai von Ondarza analyzes the approach of the European Union (EU) in the Brexit negotiations and explains the respectable success mainly with the unusual unity of the EU-27 and the structuring of the talks under the leadership of Michel Barnier. Friedrich Heinemann explains why the euro countries are struggling to reform the monetary union towards a fiscal union and why the COVID-19 pandemic is putting further pressure on decision-makers. The article by Sonja Priebus and Lisa H. Anders is dealing with the rule of law-related infringement procedures against Hungary and shows the mixed success of this approach. Along with Poland, Hungary is also at the centre of Manuel Müller’s forum article, which sheds light on how the countries’ governments seized the opportunity to cement their power during the COVID-19 pandemic while the EU and its member states struggle to give a coherent response to democratic backsliding. Michael Kaeding, Johannes Pollak and Paul Schmidt take a Europe-wide and yet individual look at the phenomenon of Euroscepticism and describe the peculiarities as well as the patterns they found. Gabriele Abels examines the new EU Gender Equality Strategy and discusses the extent to which the Commission under the leadership of Ursula von der Leyen is living up to its claim of a “Union of Equality”. Michèle Knodt reports on the international workshop of the Jean Monnet Network on EU-Canada Relations on “New Opportunities for the EU-Canada Strategic Partnership”.
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