News | 15.11.2021
The NORFACE project ‘Separation of powers for 21st century Europe (SepaRope)’ held its first in-person conference.
A conference entitled “Separation of Powers within Contemporary Europe: Power shifts in Trade, Migration and EMU” was held on 28 and 29 October in Amsterdam. At this SepaRope conference, developments in three selected policy fields were explored:
- trade,
- migration and
- EMU.
Speakers were eminent experts including: Marijn Chamon (Maastricht University), Christina Eckes (UvA), Lilian Tsourdi (Maastricht University), Paula Garcia Andrade (Comillas Pontifical University), Florin Coman-Kund (Erasmus University), Milka Sormunen University of Helsinki), Matthias Ruffert (University of Berlin), Thomas Beukers (EUI), Päivi Leino-Sandberg (University of Helsinki) and Joelle Grogan (Middlesex University).
As pointed out, the powers have been increasingly ringfenced by moving their exercise to an international treaty-making context that remove agenda-setting, framing and policy decisions from the EU institutional decision-making structures, strengthen the executive and affect internal will-forming and control structures. This can be seen in the context of the proliferation of deep and comprehensive trade agreements, which are concluded across the board with influential (Japan, Mercosur) and less influential (Vietnam) economic actors.
It is also visible in the context of the migration crisis, which has led to a high level of informalization of the external dimension of migration through non-binding and legally ambiguous agreements despite the fact that the EU has legislative competences to act in this field.
Finally, in the context of EMU, the economic and financial crisis has equally strengthened the diffusion and ringfencing of executive powers.