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Michael Hüther / Markus Vogel IW-Policy Paper No. 24 2. November 2020 Sovereignty and Responsibility in a Multi-Level System: Federalism as an Orientation for a Sustainable EU?

At the beginning of the year 2020 the European Union stands just ahead the new institutional cycle. The results of the elections to the European Parliament have not fulfilled the fears about Euroscepticism characterizing the following period.

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Federalism as an Orientation for a Sustainable EU?
Michael Hüther / Markus Vogel IW-Policy Paper No. 24 2. November 2020

Sovereignty and Responsibility in a Multi-Level System: Federalism as an Orientation for a Sustainable EU?

IW Policy Paper

German Economic Institute (IW) German Economic Institute (IW)

At the beginning of the year 2020 the European Union stands just ahead the new institutional cycle. The results of the elections to the European Parliament have not fulfilled the fears about Euroscepticism characterizing the following period.

However, the growing differentiation of European policy perspectives in the member states suggests that a simple „keep it up“ will not be the solution such as that the next steps of integration have deliver concrete responses on the citizens‘ needs. A new debate on the future of the European Union has started, yet: an interinstitutional conference on the future of the EU was foreseen to be inaugurated on Europe Day on 9th May 2020, but due to the Covid 19 pandemic the conference is postponed. In the public and political debate in Germany, the principle of subsidiarity (art. 5(3) TEU) plays a major role for the presumption of competences in the European multilevel system.

The view on the juridical as well as on the economical debate on the principle of subsidiarity as a regulative for the competence order and the allocation efficiency remains somewhat unsatisfactory and the dilatory view on the federal elements of the EU does not help at first, too. In these multilevel systems, there collide historically diverging, systematically inconsistent as well as qualitatively different needs having to be brought in a balance. This results in the promotion for an „active subsidiarity“ as well as a „subsidiarity routine“ in order to shape that together dynamically in the heterogeneous EU multilevel system – with its differentiated national state regulations as well as the different references in territorial terms. So it can succeed to find balance between the needs of the citizens (acceptancy), the EU institutions (efficiency) as well as of those of the different levels of decision making and acting (reason for being). Above all, however, subsidiarity has to start at home, i.e. it can just be strengthened in the EU as long as it does not erode in the member states. There is a challenge often that has often been neglected so far.

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Federalism as an Orientation for a Sustainable EU?
Michael Hüther / Markus Vogel IW-Policy Paper No. 24 2. November 2020

Prof. Dr. Michael Hüther / Dr. Markus Vogel: Souveränität und Verantwortung im Mehrebenensystem – Föderalismus als Orientierung für eine zukunftsfähige EU?

IW Policy Paper

German Economic Institute (IW) German Economic Institute (IW)

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Net contributors and net recipients in the EU
Berthold Busch / Björn Kauder / Samina Sultan IW-Report No. 48 28. September 2023

Where does the money from the EU budget go?: Net contributors and net recipients in the EU

Germany's net position in 2022 is slightly down on the previous year, from €21.4 billion to €19.7 billion euros, but it is still significantly higher than in the pre-Brexit period. On average for 2014 to 2020, the last Multiannual Financial Framework, it was ...

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Hans-Peter Klös / Sandra Parthie in Martens Centre for European Studies External Publication 21. June 2023

The UN Sustainable Development Goals: Some Reflections from the Perspective of the European Economic and Social Committee

To some, it might seem odd that the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) would be of relevance to the highly developed industrial nations that form the EU.

IW

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