Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to assess the plausibility of four different mid-term paths of development of the European Union (EU): first, a political union or a European state; second, a differentiated and flexible integration of the polity; third, a covert and deepening integration of...

It is common to oppose a secular Europe to a religious America. As representatives of cultural diversity and popular sovereignty, Parliaments are the best illustrations of mutual arrangements between politics and religion. Little data is available on religion at the EP, in contrast to the rich...

Long-term supply contracts often have ambiguous effects on the competitive structure, investment and consumer welfare in the long term. In a context of market building, these effects are likely to be worsened and thus even harder to assess. Since liberalization and especially since the release...

Ensuring access to a truly ‘European’ energy grid for every consumer and supplier in the European Union is a core objective of the single market project. From the first wave of liberalization directives up until the ‘draft’ framework guidelines of September 2010 on...

Since its birth, the Internet has usually been considered as a threat to the traditional conception of sovereignty as power of a state to regulate the interactions taking place within its territory. The extraterritorial nature of the Internet has definitely contributed to the globalization of...

The Education affair in Egypt is a Janus-faced case considered both as ‘local’ and ‘global’. There are local factors specific to this country - the Islamization of the Egyptian society’s moeurs - as well as elements of global and international nature, that insert the Egyptian education...

A crisis of governability has engulfed the world's industrialized democracies. It is not coincidental that the United States, Europe, and Japan are simultaneously experiencing political breakdown. Rather, globalization is a common culprit. Across the West's open societies, globalization is...

The European Union has a long experience and many success stories when it comes both to build a borderless Europe and to ensure that benefits are fairly distributed among producers and end-use customers. In some sectors results and benefits arise quickly, but sometimes borders remain difficult...

This chapter aims to analysis the new dynamics at work in EU energy regulation. Since the publication of the European Commission’s ‘Sector Inquiry Report’ in January 2007, European energy companies have felt the cold wind of competition law - many for the first time. In addition, national...

Following the grant of exemptions from the EC rules on third party access to the interconnectors BritNed, Estlink and East West Cables, the regulation of merchant transmission investment has become an important issue in the electricity sector. The creation of a new Agency for the Cooperation of...