This lecture, and the paper on which it is based, will explore how the European Union’s response to the euro-crisis has altered the constitutional balance upon which its stability is based. The paper argues that the stability and legitimacy of any political system requires the structural incorporation of individual and political self- determination. In the context of the EU, this requirement is met through the idea of constitutional balance: a balance which carries ‘substantive’, ‘institutional’ and ‘spatial’ dimensions. Analysing reforms to EU law and to the EU's institutional structure in the wake of the crisis – such as the establishment of the European Stability Mechanism, the growing influence of the European Council and the creation of a stand-alone Fiscal Compact – it is argued that recent reforms are likely to have a lasting impact on the ability of the EU to mediate conflicting interests in all three areas. By undermining its constitutional balance, the response to the crisis could endanger the long-term stability of the EU project. The lecture will conclude by exploring the feasibility and desirability of recent EU reform proposals from a constitutional perspective.

Datum und Zeit: 17. Februar 2015, 17.00 - 19.00 Uhr
Ort: Miséricorde, Saal Peter Jäggi (4112), Avenue de l'Europe 20, 1700 Freiburg
Organisation: Institut für Europarecht, Odile Ammann, odile.ammann@unifr.ch, Av. de Beauregard 11, 1700 Freiburg
Referent: Prof. Mark Dawson, Hertie School of Governance, Berlin