Who should get the vote in a Brexit referendum?

 Steve Peers“Nasty Yes won the referendum yesterday” That was my initial response to the Brexit referendum of 1975, written precociously in my childhood diary. I rather suspect that a hundred or so miles away, in a rather posher diary, and in an infinitely posher school, David Cameron was writing exactly the same words. Of course, we had different motivations for this youthful flirtation with the Dark Side. In my case, I was simply copying my...

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The Ups and Downs of Dual Citizenship – the CJEU on Dual Turkish/EU citizens and social rights

Professors: Elspeth Guild, Queen Mary University of London; Kees Groenendijk, Radboud University; and Steve Peers, University of Essex In recent years, an increasing number of Turkish citizens residing in the EU have become dual citizens of Turkey and an EU Member State. Like other dual citizens of a Member State and a non-Member State, they can invoke EU free movement law to move and reside in another Member State (see the CJEU’s Micheletti...

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Catharsis or catastrophe: what next for Greece and the Eurozone?

 Steve PeersYesterday the anti-austerity party Syriza won a large victory in Greek elections and seems certain to become the government, probably in coalition with a smaller party. What is the likely impact upon the EU’s economic and monetary union? The starting point is Syriza’s election platform. As discussed in more detail in this Open Europe blog post, that party’s aim is not to leave the EU or even the single currency, but rather to renegotiate...

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More research is needed: the EU’s attempt to attract more non-EU researchers and students

 Steve PeersThe economies of the EU’s Member States, like other advanced developing countries, increasingly need highly-skilled workforces. But since the EU’s current laws have only had a modest impact on attracting more students and researchers to the EU, the Commission proposed an overhaul of the legislation concerned in 2013. The European Parliament (EP) and the Council have each now agreed  their position on the proposed new law (see...

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From bad to worse? On the Commission and the Council’s rule of law initiatives

   Dimitry Kochenov* and Laurent Pech***Professor of EU Constitutional Law at the University of Groningen and Visiting Professor of Private Law at the Universita degli studi di Torino**Jean Monnet Professor of EU Public Law, Head of the Law and Politics Department at Middlesex University London The rule of law is one of the fundamental values on which the EU is founded according to Article 2 TEU. Faced with a rising number of...

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Is the ECB’s OMT programme legal? The Advocate-General’s Opinion in Gauweiler

  Alicia Hinarejos, Downing College, University of Cambridge; author of The Euro Area Crisis in Constitutional Perspective (forthcoming, OUP)  On the 14thof January, AG Cruz Villalon delivered his Opinion in Gauweiler (C-62/14) on the legality of the Outright Monetary Transactions (OMT) scheme of the European Central Bank (ECB). In his view, the OMT programme is, in principle, in compliance with the Treaties, as long as certain...

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