The Past, Present and Future of the European Union

The edifice of the European Union (EU) has been built on the basis of equilibrium between intergovernmental co-operation and supranationalism. In other words, the fathers of Europe wanted to attain integration through the institution of organs which would be representative of the two currents: institutions with an intergovernmental character, through which the voice of the Member-States could be heard, and institutions with a supranational character, which would represent Europe, as a potentially integrated entity, with its own interests and expectations. In the first category, the central institution is the Council of Ministers, which functions with the presence of national Ministers, depending on the subject-matter of the agenda, while in the second category the main organs are the Commission and the European Parliament. The Courts, finally, settle disputes in a spirit of supranationalism, and in this direction they have offered their good offices to integration.

On the Rise of Extremism in Europe

On March 14 2013, I had the privilege to host the Greek Public Policy Forum’s fourth event in Strasbourg, during the European Parliament’s Plenary Session. The topic explored was ‘The Rise of Extremism in Europe’. This is a phenomenon I have been noticing with increasing alarm, one which puts the whole European project in jeopardy.

The Strasbourg forum discussed the causes and common patterns that lead to the rise of extremism, as well as its relation with the economic crisis. To analyse the patterns, the political party Golden Dawn and its staggering rise in popularity in Greece was used as the particular case study.