This paper critically examines the European Union's (EU) trade policy response to the global financial and economic crisis. Contrary to what would be expected, we find that the EU's neoliberal trade paradigm, as frankly presented in the 2006 Global Europe strategy, has not been delegitimized....

The EU is not a member of the International Labour Organisation (ILO), but relatively elaborate EU coordination takes place anyway. This paper addresses two research questions: 1) How is it possible to evaluate the coordination of the EU in its specific observable configuration in the ILO?, and...

Does Europeanization matter, and, if so, to what extent and in what respects? While research on the European Union is thriving, only limited efforts have been directed towards a discussion of this crucial question. This paper examines the outcome of the EU policy process from various comparative...

The Lisbon Treaty proclaims the need for a stronger, more efficient, more coherent European Union (EU) in the international arena. In the area of external relations, the post-Lisbon EU embraces the unification of the diplomatic efforts of the European Commission, the Council Secretariat and that...

Almost twenty years ago the Maastricht Treaty introduced procedures for European Social Dialogue, as part of a larger package of measures to strengthen the social dimension of European integration. Through the Treaty provisions (articles 154-155 Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union),...

Utilising the theoretical framework of discursive institutionalism, this article investigates the problem of policy incoherence. We suggest focusing on the micro-level of policy-shaping processes through the lenses of discursive institutionalism as it is the most suitable approach to study the...

This paper reviews the incidence of precedent-based practices in the Court of Justice of the European Union’s (CJEU) case law on family reunification immigration. Particular attention is paid to the use of fundamental rights considerations, and the extent to which they guide the Court’s...

Ever since the inception of the United Nations climate regime in the early 1990s, the European Union has aspired to play a leading part in the global combat against climate change. Based on an analysis of how the Union has developed its foreign climate policy to fulfil this role over the past...