Events 2014
Inter-departmental Workshop: The new intergovernmentalism and institutional change in EU governance
Date: 01.12.2014 | Time: 16:00 | Invitation [pdf]
Venue:
Campus of the University of Vienna, Aula, Hof 1.11, 1090 Vienna
Plan [pdf] and Directions
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Speaker:
Uwe Puetter
Professor in Public Policy, Jean Monnet Chair and
Director of the Center for European Union Research,
Central European University, Budapest
Abstract:
Uwe Puetter's new book 'The European Council and the Council: New intergovernmentalism and institutional change' (Oxford University Press, 2014) provides a new perspective on the European Council and the Council of the EU that embody the new intergovernmentalism in EU governance. He identifies an integration paradox: member states are eager to foster integration, but only outside the community method. As a consequence, national governments increasingly engage in non-legislative decision-making geared towards permanent consensus-seeking and prefer direct involvement at all stages of the EU policy process. This undermines and modifies the role of traditional supranational institutions – notably the Commission and the Court of Justice – in prominent areas including economic governance, common foreign, security and defence policy as well as employment and social policy. The lecture illustrates the process of institutional change with reference to the EU’s key forums for intergovernmental decision-making: the European Council and the Council of the EU.
Comments:
Verica Trstenjak (Department of European, International and Comparative Law, University of Vienna)
Josef Melchior (Department of Political Science, University of Vienna)
Welcome Gerda Falkner (Institute for European Integration Research,
University of Vienna)
Moderator Zdenek Kudrna (Institute for European Integration Research, University of Vienna)
APA Announcement
Vienna Lecture
on the European Union: European integration in research: accomplishments and challenges
Date: 27.10.2014 | Time: 17:00 | Invitation [pdf]
Venue:
Campus of the University of Vienna, Aula, Hof 1.11, 1090 Vienna
Plan [pdf] und directions
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Lecture:
“European integration in research: accomplishments and challenges” from the perspective of a leading researcher and research director: Prof. Dame Helen Wallace (Foreign Secretary, British Academy)
Abstract:
European integration of research governance has taken many forms within the European Union and outside (e.g. CERN, Global Research Council). One of the milestones in the development of European Union research policy has been the establishment of a common funding program in 1984, known as the “Framework Program” and currently as Horizon 2020. While the majority of research funding still is allocated at the national level, EU-level funding schemes play an important role in promoting EU-wide research collaboration, but also in creating competition and defining “excellence”.
These developments raise a number of questions of relevance in Austria and beyond: How are research policies adapted and how do national governments and universities in various countries adjust to changes in European and global research governance (e.g. Austria vs. UK)? What are commonalities and differences between member states and between different actors? How much autonomy is left in today’s research governance for national governments, universities, departments and individual researchers, particularly considering crisis-endangered budgets? Finally: What is the EU’s role in a fast changing global research landscape, and are European integration and globalization of research complementary or competing developments?
Comments:
“Austria’s largest University: Any impact of Europe?”
Susanne Weigelin-Schwiedrzik (Vice Rector for Research, University of Vienna)
Moderator:
Gerda Falkner (Head, Institute and Platform for European Integration Research, University of Vienna)
APA Announcement
Private enforcement of EU competition law -
Actions for damages between ECJ and national courts
Date: 02.06.2014 | Time: 17:00 - 19:00 | Invitation [pdf]
Venue:
Campus of the University of Vienna, Aula, Hof 1.11, 1090 Vienna
Plan [pdf] und directions
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The last decade has recorded the rapid development of private enforcement of EU competition law in the EU Member States. Consumers and competitors harmed by a competition law violation may start proceedings in a national court in order to receive compensation for the suffered damage. Similar to other cases of damage compensation, competition law damage is assessed by national judges in accordance with national civil law. However, diverging national rules in this field may hamper the consistent enforcement of EU competition rules throughout the EU. To this regard, the case law of the European Court of Justice (ECJ) has achieved only a minimum harmonization of national rules. Secondly, taking into consideration the “technical” nature of competition law due to its link with economic theory, national judges may face difficulties in quantifying competition law damage. In order to solve the latter issue, the European Commission adopted a Communication in June 2013 aimed at providing guidance for national courts in quantifying competition law damage. The latter Communication should be discussed in the light of the recent ECJ case law and the ECJ Advocate General´s Opinion in Kone (case C-577/12).
The workshop aims at gathering lawyers and economists in order to discuss the main challenges faced by national judges in the quantification of competition law harm from an inter-disciplinary perspective.
Welcome: Brigitte Pircher, Institute for European Integration Research (EIF), University of Vienna
Lecture
Marco Botta, Institute for European Integration Research (EIF),
University of Vienna
Comments
Gerhard Clemenz, Department of Economics, University of Vienna
Georg Kodek, Austrian Supreme Court; Institute for Civil and Business Law, Vienna University of Economics and Business
Florian Schuhmacher, DLA Piper Weiss-Tessbach Rechtsanwälte; Institute for Civil and Business Law, Vienna University of Economics and Business
Peter Stockenhuber, Institute of Commercial and Business Law, Law Faculty, University of Vienna
Moderator
Zdenek Kudrna, Institute for European Integration Research (EIF),
University of Vienna
APA Announcement
Vienna Debate on European Integration 2014:
The Future of the Euro: Incremental or systematic reform?
Date: 22.05.2014 | Time: 16:00 | Invitation [pdf]
Venue:
Skylounge, Oskar-Morgenstern-Platz 1, 1090 Vienna
Plan [pdf] und directions
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Debate:
Crisis management by the European Central Bank and the reforms of the Eurozone economic governance stabilized the single currency, but questions about its long-term political and economic sustainability still loom large. Are any systematic reforms feasible? Or can the determined muddling through suffice?
Welcome: Heinz W. Engl,Rector, University of Vienna
Speakers
Fritz W. Scharpf
Emeritus Director, Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies, Cologne
Henrik Enderlein
Professor of Political Economy, Hertie School of Governance, Berlin
Introduction
Zdenek Kudrna, EIF, University of Vienna
Comments
Franz Nauschnigg, Head, European Affairs and International Financial Organizations Division, Austrian National Bank
Alina Lengauer, Deputy Head, Department of European, International and Comparative Law, University of Vienna
Thomas Gehrig, Vice Dean, Faculty of Business, Economics and Statistics, University of Vienna
Moderator
Gerda Falkner, Head of EIF, University of Vienna
Background paper
Background information:
Scharpf, Fritz, W. (2014), No Exit from the Euro-Rescuing Trap?, MPIfG Discussion Paper 14/4, Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies, March 2014, Cologne; PDF here
Tommaso Padoa-Schioppa Group (2012), Enderlein, Henrik (coordinator), Completing the Euro. A road map towards fiscal union in Europe, Notre Europe - thinking a united Europe, Studies&Reports 92; PDF here
APA Announcement
Inter-departmental Workshop (bilingual):
EU Enlargement 2004, 10 Years after: Politics and Law
Date: 05.05.2014 | Time: 17:00 | Invitation [pdf]
Venue:
Campus of the University of Vienna, Aula, Hof 1.11, 1090 Vienna
Plan [pdf] und directions
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Lecture: The EU’s Eastern Enlargement: Success and Challenges from a
Political Science Perspective
Ulrich Sedelmeier, London School of Economics and Political Science
Abstract:
The EU’s eastern enlargement has been hailed as a major success for the EU’s ability to promote democracy, the rule of law, and regulatory alignment in post-communist Europe. However, there has been skepticism about whether this success is sustainable after accession, and whether it can be replicated in remaining accession candidates in the Western Balkans and Turkey, and in the EU’s eastern neighbourhood. The lecture assesses the EU’s continued ability to influence domestic change in new member, candidate, and neighbouring states. Why has the power of conditionality – albeit more limited than before – remained surprisingly strong? Additionally, which meaning does the EU’s enlargement have for the so-called old member states and for the EU as a whole?
Statements and comments:
Bedeutung der Erweiterung für das Europarecht und die Rechtsicherheit in der EU: Verica Trstenjak (Faculty of Law, Department of European, International and Comparative Law, University of Vienna)
Bedeutung der Erweiterung für die praktische Rechtsanwendung: Marcella Prunbauer-Glaser (former President of the Council of Bars and Law Societies of Europe, CCBE)
Das Ansehen der EU in Osteuropa nach 2004: Dieter Segert (Faculty of Social Sciences, Department of Political Science, University of Vienna)
Moderator: Gerda Falkner (Head, Institute and Platform for European Integration Research, University of Vienna)
APA Announcement
Die EU als ein globaler Politikgestalter:
Potenziale und Grenzen
Date: 24.03.2014 | Time: 17:00 | Invitation [pdf]
Venue:
Campus of the University of Vienna, Aula, Hof 1.11, 1090 Vienna
Plan [pdf] und directions
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Im Zuge der Globalisierung hat die Ebene internationaler Politikgestaltung enorm an Bedeutung gewonnen und gerät damit auch immer stärker in den Fokus europäischer Politik. Doch welchen Einfluss kann die EU in zentralen Politikbereichen auf die Gestaltung internationaler Regeln nehmen? Was sind die Potenziale und Grenzen der EU als globaler Politikgestalter, welche Rolle spielt sie in wichtigen internationalen Organisationen wie der Welthandelsorganisation, und inwiefern hat die Partizipation der EU in internationalen Regimen zu Veränderungen europäischer Politik geführt? Diesen Fragen widmet sich das Buch ‚EU Policies in a Global Perspective: Shaping or Taking International Regimes‘ aus vergleichender Perspektive. Anhand detaillierter Fallstudien wird die Rolle der EU als globaler Akteur in zehn zentralen EU-Politikfeldern untersucht. Die wichtigsten Forschungsergebnisse werden im Rahmen dieser Veranstaltung präsentiert und mit ExpertInnen aus Politik, Journalismus und Wissenschaft diskutiert.
Grußworte:
Susanne Weigelin-Schwiedrzik, Vizerektorin der Universität Wien
Buchpräsentation:
Die EU als globaler Politikgestalter – Ergebnisse eines internationalen Forschungsprojekts am EIF
Gerda Falkner, Leiterin des Instituts für europäische Integrations- forschung (EIF)
Patrick Müller, Institut für europäische Integrationsforschung (EIF)
Round Table:
Franz Fischler, ehem. EU Kommissar für Landwirtschaft, ländliche Entwicklung und Fischerei: Die EU als Akteur auf Weltebene – Einblicke aus der politischen Praxis in der EU.
Raimund Löw, Auslandskorrespondent des ORF: Die EU als globaler
Akteur in der medialen Wahrnehmung.
Fritz Breuss, ehem. Univ. Prof., Wirtschaftsuniversität Wien: Die EU als globale Wirtschaftsmacht – Zahlen und Fakten.
Diskussionsleitung:
Walter Hämmerle (Wiener Zeitung)
Artikel Wiener Zeitung
APA Announcement
APA Science
Zukunft Europa
Inter-departmental Workshop - The European Union’s Banking Union:
What has been achieved?
Date: 20.01.2014 | Time: 17:00 | Invitation [pdf]
Venue:
Campus of the University of Vienna, Aula, Hof 1.11, 1090 Vienna
Plan [pdf] und directions
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The European Union completed the basic design of its Banking Union in December 2013. Its goal is to create an integrated financial framework for safeguarding financial stability and minimize the costs of bank failures. It is based on a detailed single rulebook developed by the European Banking Authority (EBA) and the single supervisory mechanism operated by the European Central Bank (ECB). These are complemented by newly integrated frameworks for deposit insurance and the resolution of banks that also include some sharing of crisis resolution costs by EU countries.
Event:
This workshop puts the banking union into broader economic, legal, political perspectives and discusses whether and how it can help to resolve the current problems in banking and prevent further 2008-style banking and sovereign crises in future.
Panelists:
Alina Lengauer (Deputy Head, Department of European, International and Comparative Law, University of Vienna): Legal foundations of the European Banking Union: implications for the future
Thomas Gehrig (Vice Dean, Faculty of Business, Economics and
Statistics, University of Vienna): Economic benefits from coordinated supervision
Zdenek Kudrna (Institute and Platform for European Integration Research, University of Vienna): The EU and its Banking Union: The state of the art
Moderator: Gerda Falkner (Head, Institute and Platform for European
APA Announcement
