Jo Shaw

The Treaty of Amsterdam: Challenges of Flexibility and Legitimacy

The paper reviews key aspects of the new constitutional framework for the European Union, once the Treaty of Amsterdam has been ratified, in the light of the core challenges of managing flexible integration in an enlarged Union and securing adequate legitimacy for the integration project. Reviewing briefly the general debates on flexibility, and its relationship to different constitutional and political futures for the Union which are suggested by those involved in the debates, the paper examines the principal provisions governing what is termed ‘closer cooperation’ within the new Union treaties. The emphasis is placed on the framework provisions of the TEU, and those in the First Pillar. It is noticeable that the Treaty takes a ‘non‐ideological’ approach to flexibility, eschewing direct support for those who interpret flexibility as meaning more or less integration in the future. It provides a framework for future cooperation which is likely to be too restrictive to be workable, except in very limited circumstances. However, particular instances of flexibility are provided in the Treaty, in the form of the opt‐outs from the new free movement title and the communitarisation of Schengen for the United Kingdom, Ireland and Denmark, and some might even describe these as ‘pick‐and‐choose’. The paper concludes by reviewing the flexibility debate against the background of the ongoing legitimacy challenge for the Union, arguing that, as currently conceived, flexibility is more to do with balancing political interests than with securing or enhancing legitimacy.

Citizenship in the new states of South Eastern Europe

This special issue of Citizenship Studies comes out of the first phase of research conducted under the aegis of the CITSEE project (The Europeanisation of Citizenship in the Successor States of the former Yugoslavia), during which the research team concentrated on in-depth country case analyses. This introduction briefly presents the CITSEE project, locating it within the broader frame of current trends in citizenship studies, and defines the notion of citizenship regime as it is used in the following analysis, before highlighting some critical and common elements that emerge in the papers, including the ongoing processes of Europeanisation evident in the region.

Economic and social law of the European Union

Preface Table of Cases PART I: INTRODUCTION Law and Economic Integration in the European Union Law, Policy and Socio-Economic Governance PART II: THE INTERNAL MARKET Introduction to the Law of the Internal Market The Customs Union Non-tariff Barriers to Trade In Goods Freedom to Provide Services and Freedom of Establishment Taxation and the Internal Market Monetary Integration The Common Agricultural Policy The Regulation of Anti-competitive Conduct External Economic Relations PART III: CITIZENS AND NON-CITIZENS EU Citizens in the Internal Market Towards an Area of Freedom, Security and Justice without Internal Frontiers PART IV: THE SOCIAL DIMENSION The Development of a Social Dimension Equality Law and Policy Employment Law and Policy Environmental Law and Policy Economic and Social Cohesion Development Policy

The quintessentially democratic act? Democracy, political community and citizenship in and after the UK’s EU referendum of June 2016

Abstract On 23 June 2016, the United Kingdom voted to leave the European Union, by a rather small majority. Although much about the future relations between the EU and the UK remains uncertain, it is already possible to explore in more detail the issues of democracy, political community and citizenship which were thrown up by this referendum result. The article explores the reconstruction of the vote as the ‘will of the people’, in the light of the principle of demoi-cracy which suggests a more nuanced approach to the issue of democratic consent in complex multi-level polities such as the UK and the EU. Specific questions are raised about the narrowness of the referendum franchise, and about the consequences that flow from the territorially differentiated result of the referendum, with Scotland in particular voting strongly ‘to remain’.

The Institutions of the European Union

This chapter examines the composition, and basic powers, functions and organisation of the institutions of the EU. Discussion of the institutions at work is reserved for consideration in Chapter 5.