The Future of European Union Soft Law: A Research and Policy Agenda for the Aftermath Of COVID-19

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Oana Andreea Stefan
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
Soft Law ◽  
Policy Agenda ◽  
The Future ◽  
Research And Policy

scholarly journals An Evaluation of the Policy Context on Psychosocial Risks and Mental Health in the Workplace in the European Union: Achievements, Challenges, and the Future

2015 ◽  
Vol 2015 ◽  
pp. 1-18 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stavroula Leka ◽  
Aditya Jain ◽  
Sergio Iavicoli ◽  
Cristina Di Tecco
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
European Union ◽  
Gap Analysis ◽  
Good Practice ◽  
Soft Law ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Psychosocial Risks ◽  
Preventive Actions ◽  
Risk Management Process ◽  
The Future

Despite the developments both in hard and soft law policies in the European Union in relation to mental health and psychosocial risks in the workplace, a review of these policies at EU level has not been conducted to identify strengths, weaknesses, and gaps to be addressed in the future. Keeping in mind that the aim should be to engage employers in good practice, ideally such policies should include key definitions and elements of the psychosocial risk management process, covering risk factors, mental health outcomes, risk assessment and preventive actions, or interventions. The current paper aims to fill this gap by reviewing hard and soft law policies on mental health in the workplace and psychosocial risks applicable at EU level and conducting a gap analysis according to a set of dimensions identified in models of good practice in this area. Our review of ninety-four policies in total revealed several gaps, especially in relation to binding in comparison to nonbinding policies. These are discussed in light of the context of policy-making in the EU, and recommendations are offered for future actions in this area.

scholarly journals Meaningful, but effective? A critical evaluation of Ireland’s citizens’ dialogues on the future of Europe

Politics ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 026339572199148
Author(s):  
Anthony Costello
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
Public Relations ◽  
Public Discourse ◽  
Critical Evaluation ◽  
Participatory Approach ◽  
Decision Makers ◽  
Deliberative Process ◽  
Political Will ◽  
The Future

On the 25 March 2017, leaders of the EU27 and European Union (EU) institutions ratified the Rome Declaration. They committed to invite citizens to discuss Europe’s future and to provide recommendations that would facilitate their decision-makers in shaping their national positions on Europe. In response, citizens’ dialogues on the future of Europe were instituted across the Union to facilitate public participation in shaping Europe. This paper explores Ireland’s set of dialogues which took place during 2018. Although event organisers in Ireland applied a relatively atypical and more systematic and participatory approach to their dialogues, evidence suggests that Irelands’ dialogues were reminiscent of a public relations exercise which showcased the country’s commitment to incorporating citizens into the debate on Europe while avoiding a deliberative design which could have strengthened the quality of public discourse and the quality of public recommendations. Due to an absence of elite political will for a deliberative process, as well as structural weaknesses in design, participants’ recommendations lacked any clear and prescriptive direction which could shape Ireland’s national position on the future of Europe in any constructive or meaningful way.

scholarly journals Externalizing Migration Management through Soft Law: The Case of the Memorandum of Understanding between Libya and Italy

Global Jurist ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Martino Reviglio
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
International Migration ◽  
Critical Discussion ◽  
International Organization ◽  
Soft Law ◽  
Illustrative Case ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Migration Management ◽  
The Many ◽  
Law Making

Abstract The externalization of migration management to third countries is becoming a recurrent phenomenon in international migration management. Soft law instruments emerged as an important strategy to externalize migration management to third countries through international migration agreements. In particular, in the last years the European Union and some member states have adopted bilateral and multilateral migration agreements in order to diminish the arrival of migrants in Europe. These agreements in the form of soft law instruments are problematic because do not follow the ordinary process of law making and thus it is difficult to assess their legal effectivity. The memorandum of understanding signed in February 2017 between Libya and Italy represents an illustrative case of the process of externalizing migration management through soft law. From a critical discussion of the memorandum, many problems in relation to its legal and material validity follow. In particular, the protection of migrants’ human rights in Libya is not guaranteed as the many international organization and NGOs reports indicate.

Instituting Europe: Germany, the Union, and the Legacy of the Short Century

2001 ◽  
Vol 19 (2) ◽  
pp. 1-21
Author(s):  
Michael Werz
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
Democratic Legitimacy ◽  
Social Changes ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Institutional Reforms ◽  
Crucial Question ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Future ◽  
The Moment ◽  
Federal Structure

Recent debates about the future of the European Union have focusedin large part on institutional reforms, the deficit of democratic legitimacy,and the problem of economic and agrarian policies. As importantas these issues may be, the most crucial question at the momentis not whether Europe will prevail as a union of nations or as a thoroughlyintegrated federal structure. What is of much greater concernis the fact that political structures and their corresponding politicaldiscourses have lagged far behind the social changes occurring inEuropean societies. The pivotal transformation of 1989 has not beengrasped intellectually or politically, even though its results areincreasingly visible in both the east and west.

A Constitutional Court for Europe?

2004 ◽  
Vol 6 ◽  
pp. 1-34
Author(s):  
Anthony Arnull
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
European Court Of Justice ◽  
European Council ◽  
Constitutional Court ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Constitutional Order ◽  
Court Of Justice ◽  
European Court ◽  
The Future ◽  
Draft Constitution

The purpose of this article is to consider the effect of the draft Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe on the European Court of Justice (ECJ). At the time of writing, the future of the draft Constitution is somewhat uncertain. Having been finalised by the Convention on the Future of Europe in the summer of 2003 and submitted to the then President of the European Council, it formed the basis for discussion at an intergovernmental conference (IGC) which opened in October 2003. Hopes that the text might be finalised by the end of the year were dashed when a meeting of the IGC in Brussels in December 2003 ended prematurely amid disagreement over the weighting of votes in the Council. However, it seems likely that a treaty equipping the European Union with a Constitution based on the Convention’s draft will in due course be adopted and that the provisions of the draft dealing with the ECJ will not be changed significantly. Even if either assumption proves misplaced, those provisions will remain of interest as reflecting one view of the position the ECJ might occupy in a constitutional order of the Union.

scholarly journals Confronting Energy Poverty in Europe: A Research and Policy Agenda

Energies ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (4) ◽  
pp. 858
Author(s):  
Stefan Bouzarovski ◽  
Harriet Thomson ◽  
Marine Cornelis
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Clean Energy ◽  
Policy Agenda ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Energy Poverty ◽  
Global Context ◽  
Multiple Strategies ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
Research And Policy ◽  
The Eu

This paper scrutinizes existing policy efforts to address energy poverty at the governance scale of the European Union (EU) and its constituent Member States. Our main starting point is the recent expansion of energy poverty policies at the EU level, fuelled by the regulatory provisions of the Clean Energy for all Europeans Package, as well as the establishment of an EU Energy Poverty Observatory. Aided by a systematic and customized methodology, we survey the extensive scientific body of work that has recently been published on the topic, as well as the multiple strategies and measures to address energy poverty that have been formulated across the EU. This includes the principal mitigation approaches adopted by key European and national institutions. We develop a framework to judge the distributional and procedural justice provisions within the recently adopted National Energy and Climate Plans, as an indicator of the power, ability and resolve of relevant institutions to combat the causes and consequences of energy injustice. We also provide a research and policy agenda for future action, highlighting a series of scientific and decision-making challenges in the European and global context.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document