1. The economic crisis and the future of European integration: debates and solutions
The EU is in the midst of an unprecedented economic turmoil which affects not only monetary and macro-economic policies but the legitimacy of the European project as a whole. This section addresses the causes, mechanisms, effects, spillovers and potential solutions to the crisis, as well as the implications of the crisis for individual member states and for European integration.
Chair: Gerald Schneider, University of Konstanz, Germany
2. Democracy, parties, citizens and interest representation in the EU
This section focuses on democracy and representation in the EU broadly conceived. It invites panels and papers that deal with constitutional developments, legitimacy, norms and rights in the EU, electoral politics, the role of political parties, the relationship between parties and voters, and citizen attitudes to issues of European integration, as well as with lobbying and interest mobilization in the EU.
Chair: Theresa Kuhn, Freie Universität Berlin, Germany
3. EU Institutions: the new balance
The EU institutions are still coming to grips with the effects of the Eastern Enlargement and the reforms introduced with the Treaty of Lisbon. This section collects papers that deal with the functioning and transformations of EU institutions, the patterns of inter-institutional conflict and cooperation, and the evolving balance of power.
Chair: Frank Häge, University of Limerick, Ireland
4. Governance, innovation and regulation in the EU
This section focuses on the theoretical and empirical analysis of the new forms and tools of governance born in response to the crisis, as well as other innovative forms of governance in the EU, patterns of regulatory policy making, coordination, networks in policy making, administrative and management innovations.
Chair: Martijn Groenleer, Delft University of Technology, the Netherlands
5. Policy making and implementation: sectors and actors
This section deals with policy making in traditional sectors of EU activities, including but not restricted to internal market, social policy, environment, migration, consumer protection, etc. The section covers the process of development of EU policies as well as the analysis of the implementation, enforcement, and impact of the rules at the national level.
Chairs: Dorte Sindbjerg Martinsen, University of Copenhagen, Denmark and
Christilla Roederer-Rynning, University of Southern Denmark, Denmark
6. Foreign and security policy, external relations and external governance
Despite the intensive development of organizational structures, the European Union continues facing serious challenges in the international arena: from the responses to changes in Northern Africa to issues of energy security and relations with neighbours and new rising powers. Internally, institutional innovations such as the External Action Service need to be evaluated in terms of their ability to perform their envisaged functions. This section welcomes papers and panels touching on the whole spectrum of themes relevant for foreign policy, security and external action.
Chairs: Karolina Pomorska, University of Cambridge, UK / University of Maastricht, the Netherlands and Ana Juncos, Bristol University, UK
7. New methods, models, and approaches in EU studies
The study of European integration is rooted in diverse academic traditions and exhibits wide varieties of research philosophies and methodologies. This section collects papers that bring innovative methods, models, and approaches to the study of the EU, including but not restricted to experimental methods, statistical tools for causal inference, formal models, agent-based simulation, and other approaches that push the boundary of EU research.
Chair: Thomas König, University of Mannheim, Germany
