Abstract

We are delighted to announce that Prof Ariadna Ripoll Servent (University of Bamberg) will lead the next session of the European Studies Reading Group on ‘Strong institutions, weak policy change: The role of EU institutions in the Area of Freedom, Security and Justice’.

In particular, we would like to invite all interested graduate students to join us for this session. Please also refer to the outline of the reading group series and the readings for this session (see below). For more information, please visit the website of the European Centre @POLIS or contact Sebastian Steingass.

The next reading group takes place on Wednesday, 15 February 2017, 11.00-12.30 and is led by Prof Thomas Diez (University of Tübingen). More information to follow.

About Ariadna Ripoll Servent

Ariadna Ripoll Servent joint the University of Bamberg, Germany, in 2013. She is Junior Professor of Political Science (European Integration). Her research focuses on European integration, EU institutions and EU internal security policies. She holds a degree from Sciences Po Paris and the College of Europe in Bruges and she obtained a PhD in Contemporary European Studies from the University of Sussex. She has previously worked at the Institute for European Integration Research in Vienna and the College of Europe. Her most recent book is entitled Institutional and Policy Change in the European Parliament – Deciding on Freedom, Security and Justice (Palgrave Macmillan, 2015). For a CV and a full list of publications, please see here.

Outline of the reading group series

In recent years, scholarship surrounding European integration and the European Union (EU) has been littered with crises narratives: from the economic and monetary, hybrid security threats and terrorism, refugees and Schengen to populism, and ultimately Brexit. While tensions and conflicts within the EU and around its borders may not have been created by the EU, the struggle to find common policy responses has challenged integration. These challenges have created spaces for transnational politics which are often ignored or downplayed despite their potential. Transnational politics are an instance of European integration, even if, as in the case of populist alliances across Europe, they go against the traditional vision of ‘ever-closer union’.

In many ways, Germany’s role is central to these responses. This is not only because it has been criticised for both leadership and hesitancy, as in, for example, the 2015 policy on migration. The response that this created all over Europe highlights the role of German actors, from government all the way to civil society. This short series of reading groups will deal with specific instances of challenges to integration that have created space for transnational politics. It focuses on, though discussions are not confined to, transnational responses to migration and challenges to the EU’s common border management, the surge of populism on the right and left, and security institutions against the background of hybrid threats and terrorism.

The reading groups are aimed at graduate students, mainly in the field of politics, international studies and migration. Together with an invited scholar from Germany, students will discuss recent academic publications and ongoing research on the outlined topics. The reading group is generously funded by the DAAD Cambridge Research Hub.

Readings for this session

Ripoll Servent, A. (2013) ‘Holding the European Parliament responsible: policy shift in the Data Retention Directive from consultation to codecision’, Journal of European Public Policy, Vol. 20, No. 7, pp. 972-87.

Ripoll Servent, A. and MacKenzie, A. (2016) ‘Eroding Germany’s Commitment to Data Protection: Policy Entrepreneurs and Coalition Politics in EU Passenger Name Records’, German Politics, DOI : 10.1080/09644008.2016.1250889

Trauner, F. and Ripoll Servent, A. (2016) ‘The Communitarization of the Area of Freedom, Security and Justice: Why Institutional Change does not Translate into Policy Change’, Journal of Common Market Studies, Vol. 54, No. 6, pp. 1417-32.