8th Pan-European Conference on the European Union
Divisione Comunicazione ed Eventi
Direzione Generale - Università degli Studi di Trento
via Calepina 14 - 38122 Trento, Italy
+39 0461 281809-3216
comunicazione-citta [at] unitn.it
Venue: University of Trento
The Union’s Institutional and Constitutional Transformations: Stress or Adaptation?
The European Union has been recently undergoing a momentous period of stress due to both internal (Euro, EMU) and external (Libya, Ukraine, refugee) crises. Reactions to these crises have been differentiated, ranging from significant institutional and constitutional transformation to piece-meal adaptation. While the management of the Euro-crisis, the further strengthening of the EMU and, to some extent, surreptitious progress towards a budgetary and fiscal Union have been characterized by landmark decisions which have transformed the institutional and perhaps also the constitutional complexion of the Union, in foreign matters innovations have been less apparent and less dramatic and have mostly occurred along conventional tracks.
In and of itself this is nothing new. The life of the EU has been constantly characterized by a marked lopsidedness between powerful internal structuring and weak external engagement. However, never before has this unevenness been more strident. While significant sacrifices of sovereignty are requested of Euro-zone member states in terms of their budgetary decisions (and procedures), their mid-term macroeconomic objectives and their planned structural reforms, in foreign and security matters member states cling to, and possibly even claim back, shares of Westphalian sovereignty. Can these two opposed lines of development proceed any further without causing significant tensions and stress in the entire EU edifice? Can two equally significant aspects of state sovereignty and liberal democracy – the domestic and the foreign – be governed by such disparate institutional arrangements? Will the Union eventually recompose these two spheres or will they be driven further and further apart by dynamics that differentiate it into core and peripheral circles? And can internal regulatory and structural policies alone hold the European project together? Papers addressing these issues from a range of perspectives, not only institutional, are welcome.
The conference will provide space for researchers from various backgrounds – Political Science, International Relations, Public Administration, Political Economy, Sociology, History, etc. – to present and discuss cutting-edge research focused on the pressing questions of European integration. We are committed to methodological pluralism, scientific quality, and societal relevance and we encourage dialogue across academic disciplines. We welcome new theoretical and empirical papers and panels that reflect on the ever-changing nature of the EU; the democratic legitimacy of the integration process; the evolution, functioning and effects of EU policies and institutions; the role of the EU in the broader world, and so on.
Objectives
To provide scholars working in various disciplines and with different methodologies the opportunity to exchange cutting edge research results on the problems of European integration.
Key dates and deadlines
15 Aug 2015 Panel and Paper Proposal submission opens
15 Oct 2015 Deadline for Panel and Paper Proposals
5 Jan 2016 Registration opens
29 Feb 2016 Deadline for registration
1 Jun 2016 Papers can be uploaded
15 Jun 2016 Deadline for uploading Papers
Scientific convener: Prof. Simona Piattoni, University of Trento
Further information: centrojeanmonnet [at] unitn.it, comunicazione-citta [at] unitn.it
In collaboration with: