CEPS Policy Briefs


241 - 270 of 290
01 April 2004

It has long been known that enlargement would have dramatic implications for EU decision-making: a structure designed for six would simply collapse under the weight of 25 or more members. This is why EU leaders have been searching for a viable voting-system reform, which will be discussed again in June 2004. This policy brief studies the many options facing EU leaders. Using the Normalised Banzhaf Index, it provides quantitative estimates of the decision-making efficiency and distributions of power for the various schemes proposed.

01 February 2004

This paper advances and elaborates on three theses concerning the incoming European Commission:
1. The President of the incoming Commission needs to have a strong profile as a ‘technocrat politician’.
2. The new Commission needs to base its work on a multi-annual mission, agreed with the European Council, and that gives priority to the development of EU strategies in the fields of economic governance and of justice and home affairs.

01 October 2003

On 21 May 2003, the European Commission presented its long-awaited Communications on Enhancing Corporate Governance and the Reinforcing Statutory Audit in the EU. The Communications follow in the wake of the EC-sponsored studies on corporate governance in Europe, the problems with “America Inc.”, the adoption of the US Sarbanes-Oxley Act in July 2002, and the Winters II report. They contain a long series of legislative proposals and reforms (20 in total), and almost as many proposals for recommendations and further studies in these areas.

01 October 2003

The Wider Europe has become a prominent feature in European foreign policy discourse. The EU’s first policy documents on this subject, however, have been thin in substance, mainly seeking to develop more active bilateral relations with countries such as Ukraine and Moldova. At the same time, however, the EU is discussing bilaterally just with Russia a set of common European policy spaces that should be at the heart of a Wider Europe policy.

01 October 2003

The Wider Europe has become a prominent feature in European foreign policy discourse. The EU’s first policy documents on this subject, however, have been thin in substance, mainly seeking to develop more active bilateral relations with countries such as Ukraine and Moldova. At the same time, however, the EU is discussing bilaterally just with Russia a set of common European policy spaces that should be at the heart of a Wider Europe policy.

01 September 2003

This paper proposes recalibrating, clarifying and further developing the initial policy ideas of the EU on the Wider Europe in the following directions:
- distinguishing between the Wider Europe and the Greater Middle East,
- identifying the Wider Europe more closely with the Council of Europe, using its membership map as a defining characteristic, as also its common norms of democracy and human rights,
- adopting a comprehensive view of this continental Wider Europe, certainly including the weakest states and entities of the region (e.g. to include the Caucasus),

01 September 2003

Abstract This CEPS Policy Brief assesses the potential impact of the draft Constitutional Treaty of the Convention on the Future of Europe on the way the EU operates in international climate negotiations. Although Treaty revisions in the EU are ultimately decided by the EU member states, the Convention’s draft can be seen as an important blueprint that forms the starting point of the negotiations between the member states due to start in October 2003. Among the relevant issues that the authors identify are:

01 January 2003

Abstract updated by the author, March 2012.