Croatia: Making a Success of EU Membership
By Andrew Waterman Whilst I sat reading the complimentary tourist brochure handed out to each delegate as I waited for the conference to start, I contemplated whether the event would just be a one-sided appraisal of Croatia’s accession to the EU. However, whilst the mood amongst the policy-makers, diplomats and academics present was largely optimistic,
The digital market: EU institutions are working hard to maintain fair competition
On 11 November 2013, Joaquín Almunia, Vice-President of the European Commission and European Commissioner for Competition, stated that the EU is working hard to make the most of the European digital market. In the unique milieu of The London School of Economics and Politics, a numerous audience welcomed the speech of the Spanish commissioner who
Local Democracy Week 2013 Challenge: Why Should Anyone Bother to Vote?
As part of this year’s European Local Democracy Week, Portsmouth City Council, the University of Portsmouth and the Political Studies Association (PSA) ran a challenge exercise to consider voting and electoral turnout. The event sought to identify current barriers to voting, why turnout at all levels of elections is falling and how we could address
The 2014 European Parliamentary Elections: The Most Important European Elections Yet?
In 2014 citizens have an opportunity to express their views about the EU and evaluate how successful policy makers were in tackling the crisis. It will be the eighth Europe-wide election since the introduction of direct elections to the European Parliament in 1979. The outcome will see a new parliament, responsible in part for governing
Gibraltar stand-off: a storm in a cup of tea
What started as a row between aggrieved local Spanish fishermen and the Gibraltarian government over an artificial reef has escalated into an exchange of strong rhetoric between the Spanish and British governments. The sovereignty over Gibraltar has been a bone of contention in Spanish-British relations for 300 years. The Treaty of Utrecht (1713), which ceded