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EU/Europe

The research division EU/Europe analyses the core challenges facing the European Union and Europe. Research focuses on policy areas, processes and concerns that shape the internal and external action of the European Union and its member states.

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The research agenda of the EU/Europe research division reflects the relevance of the EU as a framework for German policies and politics. 

Specific fields of research comprise the following:

The legal and socio-political foundations of the EU

  • Capacities and democratic legitimacy of European institutions, instruments and procedures
  • Necessities and options of reforming EU primary law
  • Differentiation and flexibility inside the EU
  • Democratic legitimacy and the participation of the European Parliament and national parliaments in the EU
  • Populist, nationalist, and Eurosceptic parties in Europe
  • Securing the rule of law
  • The EU as guiding framework for German politics

Decision-making, negotiations and implementation in central areas of EU politics

  • Developing the Economic and Monetary Union
  • European financial constitution and the EU budget
  • European energy, climate and environmental policies
  • Justice and Home Affairs, including migration, asylum and border management policies
  • Trade and external economic policies of the EU, including development policies

EU Foreign and Security Policy

  • The EU as an international actor
  • Developments in CFSP and CSDP
  • Strategic action in civil and military EU missions and operations
  • Strategic partners of the EU
  • EU-US relations
  • European and transatlantic cyber security policies

EU Enlargement and Neighbourhood Policy

  • EU accession negotiations with the Western Balkans and Ukraine
  • Freedom of media and expression in accession countries
  • The development of the European Neighbourhood Policy
  • Alternatives to EU membership and integration capacity of the EU

EU, domestic and economic policies of selected European states

  • France
  • United Kingdom, Poland, Central Eastern and South-Eastern Europe
  • Southern Europe