The Impossibility of Constitutionalizing Emergency Europe¹

Social Perspectives on Brexit, COVID‐19 and European (Dis)Integration

“…On 10 March 2020, EU heads of state or government collectively recognized the situation as a policy crisis emergency (see Auer and Scicluna, 2021 in this issue), justifying a coordinated and coherent response both within the EU and between the social and economic impacts of the pandemic. Despite the apparent unity expressed in the summit's conclusions, national leaders disagreed over how to contain the pandemic without causing irreparable damage to economic and social life.…”

Constitutionalizing the EU in an Age of Emergencies

“…Who is in control, and what criteria they apply to decision-making, become difficult to discern, and more so to contest. 3 The authority and coherence of lawnational, European, internationalis weakened (Auer and Scicluna, 2021;Scicluna, 2018). As formal rules of procedure are evaded, and informal and ad hoc modes of government arise, a mismatch develops between how the polity is meant to work and how it works in practice.…”

The European Green Deal and the EU's Regulatory Power in Times of Crisis

“…Crises are major, unexpected, non‐routine, disruptive occurrences that may allow for change, and the pandemic surely qualifies as such. We have seen a flourishing literature on how the previous crises over the last two decades have affected European integration dynamics (see also Auer and Scicluna, 2021 in this issue). Drastic shifts during times of crisis, such as deeper integration resulting from the Eurozone crisis have been described as ‘a leap forward’ (Grossman and Leblond, 2011) and stand out in comparison to stagnation and deadlock which resulted from the migration crisis (Schimmelfennig, 2018).…”