These are called intergovernmental forums. They operate outside the traditional EU framework and have raised serious questions about legitimacy and transparency. But over time these disparate forums have slowly and quietly crept out of the shadows and into public life, becoming noisy actors on the European stage. So why are groups that were designed to stay backstage becoming so conspicuous? One man who might know the answer is Lewis Miller, a British researcher in the department of political and social sciences.

How can robust and dependable welfare states be maintained in diverse societies? It sounds as if it shouldn’t be a problem, but many are now starting to worry that multiculturalism has inadvertently undermined the foundations of our shared sense of responsibility. “This has been called the progressive’s dilemma” says Professor Will Kymlicka, “that there has to be a trade-off between recognition of diversity and the welfare state.”

The purpose of academic research is to pursue a cold and clinical objective truth, but many researchers who find themselves delving deep into the crux of a political issue are driven by a profound sense that something is wrong with the status quo and that something ought to be done about it. And yet, there is a widespread stigma against ‘activist research’ which is often considered biased. Meanwhile many believe there is also something slightly deceptive about concealing a strongly held conviction. So somehow, a balance must be struck.

Since the Arab Spring started in 2010, those living in the countries around the edge of Europe have endured unprecedented levels of political and economic uncertainty that has, across the region, resulted in bloodshed and instability. As violence escalated in North Africa and the Middle East, populist anti-immigration rhetoric has steadily proliferated throughout Western European politics in the wake of the Eurozone debt crisis. This has created a political landscape hostile to any kind of pro-immigration legislation and fostered a desire for each country to protect its own narrow economic and social interests.

For the first time in living memory a generation of Europeans are expecting to grow up worse off than their parents as living standards across the western world continue to slide. Professor Juan J. Dolado joined the the EUI in January, he has written extensively on the issue and is now one of the rare optimistic voices in the debate.

Why did French railway workers not sabotage Jewish deportation trains during the Second World War? This is the question that drove Ludivine Broch to her PhD and into her current research on the experiences of being from ethnic minorities in Vichy France.

Matthias Sutter joined the EUI last September as Professor of Applied Economics. His work as an experimental economist explores the behaviour of children and teenagers. His latest book looks at the correlation between patience and life time achievement. “The idea is to study how human behaviour responds to incentives. That is what experimental economics is,” […]

Richard Bellamy is the new Director of the Max Weber Programme. He joins the EUI after seven years at University College London during which time he established their Political Science Department and European Institute. With his boxes of books still unpacked, he discusses what lies ahead for him and the programme over the next five […]

Jennifer Welsh is Professor in International Relations in the Department of Political and Social Sciences. She joined the EUI in January from the University of Oxford and currently serves the UN Secretary General as Special Advisor on the ‘Responsibility to Protect’

Besir Ceka is a Max Weber Fellow at the EUI, here he discusses his work trying to understand what Europeans mean by ‘democracy’