EU Legitimacy in Time of Crisis:

How to Overcome the Legitimacy and Democracy Deficit of the EU?

International Conference
Warsaw, June 20–21, 2016

The conference is organised within the Jean Monnet Network MoreEU: More Europe to Overcome the Crisis, constituted by the Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna; the University of Warsaw; CEU-San Pablo University; Nova Universidad de Lisboa; and Notre Europe – Jacques Delors Institute;

in partnership with: The Research Committee 14: Ethnicity and Politics, IPSA; The Collaborative Research Network on Euroscepcticism, UACES; and The Polish Association of European Studies (PTSE).

The conference is to be held at the Institute of European Studies, University of Warsaw on June 20-21, 2016.

The EU has been facing in the last decade, symbolically opened by the French and Dutch referendum vetoes to the EU Constitutional Treaty, numerous challenges to its role, institutional structure, composition, and mode of operation. They have taken in particular, but not exclusively, the form of transcontinental Euroscepticism, rise in centrifugal movements on both nation and union level, as well as in the neighbouring countries, and – last but not least – of radical testing and reinterpretations of the principle of solidarity. One may argue the abovementioned challenges of last decade add up to the general crisis in the Union’s legitimacy. Importantly, they have also been deeply transforming the way the Union operates, or it is engaged by its key external partners.

Academic panel: Britain, Poland and Europe after the European Election 2014

June 16, 2014, 9.00-12.30

During the previous BRITANNIA panel held shortly before the European Election 2014 we have discussed the prospects and possible outcomes of the Scottish referendum for the union of Britain as well as a wider European context of the UK–EU relations and Polish-British relations (issues of immigration and EU’s institutional framework).

This time we shall take a closer look at the recent European Election and its wider context. In the first part of the panel we shall discuss EU’s future scenarios in the EP’s 8th parliamentary term in the light of a notable success of Eurosceptical parties. The cases of the UK, Poland and other Central and Eastern European countries representing three stages of the big-bang enlargement of 2004-2007-2013 shall be analysed. 

In the second part of the panel we shall discuss the implications of the 2014 crisis in Ukrainian for European policy-making on the examples of UK Defence Policy and of Moldova’s relations with the EU in the context of Transnistria.

The aforementioned problems shall be presented by leading researchers from Britain, France and Poland.

Academic panel: Scotland, Britain and Europe 2014: Challenges of (dis)integration

May 15, 2014, 9.00–15.30, University Library in Warsaw (BUW) Building, Seminar Room 256,
56/66 Dobra Str.

Our speakers:

Dr Craig McAngus (School of Applied Social Science, University of Stirling)
Dr Małgorzata Kułakowska (Jagiellonian University in Cracow)
Dr Małgorzata Kaczorowska (Institute of Political Science, University of Warsaw)
Dr Lee McGowan (School of Politics, International Studies and Philosophy, The Queen’s University Belfast)
Dr Tomasz Czapiewski (Institute of Political Science and European Studies, University of Szczecin)
Mr. Jiři Koubek (Researcher, Institute of Political Science, Faculty of Philosophy, Charles University of Prague)
Dr Roderick Parkes (The Polish Institute of International Affairs)
Mr. Marek Rybarczyk (Columnist, Newsweek Poland) 

Polish and British Politics 2013:
The Challenges and Opposition to the European Integration

Workshop

May 24, 2013, 9.00–15.30,
CIUW Building, Central Campus

The British Socio-Political Studies Research Group BRITANNIA
The Polish Society for British and Commonwealth Studies
and The Institute of European Studies, University of Warsaw 

The workshop was to analyse the European policy-making of Poland from the British Perspective, as well as the Polish perception of key problems of the UK’s European policy-making, and to compare these two perspectives.

Special attention was paid to the influence of the EU accession on the quality of Polish democracy as well as to the state of methodological debate and research in the field of Euroscepticism Studies. There were also discussed such important British political developments of 2012–2013 as influence of the Scottish independence debate on EU’s policy-making; perspectives of the UK’s EU referendum; the 2013 Queen’s Speech; and the legacy of Lady Thatcher assessed from the Central European perspective.

The Research Group BRITANNIA proposed a panel within the framework of the Second National Political Science Congress: Poland, Europe and the Challenges of Modern World. The No. 38 panel entitled British Politics and the European Integration, was divided in two parts of 120 minutes each. The proceedings were scheduled for September 20, 2012 at 17.00–19.00 and September 21 at 9.00–11.00. There were 13 presentations prepared by researchers representing academic institutions from all over Poland.

Agenda of the British Politics and European Integration Process Panel (chaired by Dr Przemysław Biskup)

Part 1: September 20, 2012 (17.00–19.00):

• Dr Przemysław Biskup (University of Warsaw): Influence of the British Federalist Concepts on United Kingdom’s Participation in the European Integration Process.
• Dr Tomasz Czapiewski (University of Szczecin): Scotland and Europe in the Perspective of the Independence Referendum.
• Dr Anna Garczewska (University College of Torun): Community Law vs. United Kingdom Legal System and Politics.
• Dr Małgorzata Kaczorowska (University of Warsaw): British Political Parties and the European Union.
• Tomasz Lignar (University of Rzeszow): United Kingdom and the EU’s Common Security and Defence Policy.
• Dr Grzegorz Ronek (John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin): Major British Political Parties’ Approach to the European Integration.

State of the Union 2012: UK's European Policy in the Time of Crisis

Workshop

May 18, 2012, 10.30–14.00,
Principal building of the Faculty of Journalism and Political Studies, Lecture Hall No. 1
3 Krakowskie Przedmieście Str.

The workshop took place two years after the General Election of May 2010, and one year after the referendum on the electoral reform, as well as the Scottish, Welsh and Northern Irish assembly elections, and the English local elections, which determined the face of the national, regional and local politics in different parts of the United Kingdom, and was intended to summarise the state of British Politics in the mid of dynamic parliament, and the government coalition. There were a number of questions identified of key importance to the UK’s future. There were the future of the British Union in the face of the Scottish independence referendum; the future of the European Union in the face of the Eurozone crisis; and the UK’s European policy, as well as their consequences shaping current political discourse in Britain. Therefore, the 2012 annual Britannia workshop focused on the UK’s position in the face of the European Union, and on other major events setting this principal problem in a broader context.

British Politics 2011: A New Opening?

Workshop

The Chair of European Studies and the Institute of Political Science, The University of Warsaw
June 20, 2011, 10.00–15.00,
Stefan Czarnowski Lecture Hall
Principal building of the Faculty of Journalism and Political Studies
3 Krakowskie Przedmieście

The aim of the workshop was to discuss political developments in the United Kingdom which had occurred since the General Election of May 2010. The discussion was devoted to (1) the role of monarchy in the shaping of contemporary British national identity, to (2) the referendum on parliamentary electoral reform and the first year of the Coalition Government’s rule, and to (3) the local and regional election campaigns and results in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, with special focus on Scottish National Party’s unprecedented victory.

Workshop was held in English.

The Second National British Studies Conference: The United Kingdom after the General Election 2010

The British Socio-Political Studies Research Group BRITANNIA,
The Chair of European Studies and The Institute of Political Science, 
University of Warsaw
September 15–16, 2010
The Senate Hall, Kazimierzowski Palace, Central Campus of the University of Warsaw, 
and the Stefan Czarnowski Lecture Hall, Principal building of the Faculty of Journalism and Political Studies, 3 Krakowskie Przedmieście Str.

The Second National British Studies Conference: The United Kingdom after the General Election 2010 was held on the September 15-16, 2010 at the University of Warsaw under the joint patronage of His Excellency Mr. Roderic Todd, Her Majesty’s Ambassador to the Republic of Poland, and Her Magnificence Professor Katarzyna Chałasińska-Macukow, Rector of the University of Warsaw. The Conference was organized by the Chair of the European Studies, University of Warsaw - British Socio-Political Studies Research Group BRITANNIA in cooperation with the Institute of Political Science, University of Warsaw. The conference was held in Polish and English.

United Kingdom after the General Election of 2010 Workshop

The British Socio-Political Studies Research Group BRITANNIA,
The Chair of European Studies and The Institute of Political Science,
University of Warsaw
May 31, 2010
Tyszkiewiczów-Potockich Palace, Central Campus of the University of Warsaw

The workshop entitled United Kingdom after the General Election of 2010: New Opening in Domestic and Foreign Policies, took place on May 31, 2010 at the Tyszkiewiczów-Potockich Palace at the Central Campus of the Warsaw University and was organised on the initiative of the British Socio-Political Studies Research Group BRITANNIA. The workshop was held in Polish.

Workshop begun with a short introductory word by Professors Franciszek Gołembski, Chairperson of the BRITANNIA Group. Subsequently Dr Przemysław Biskup presented the ideas underlying creation of the Group and its agenda for the following months. The introductory part of the workshop was concluded by the short introduction to the problems connected with the General Election of 2010, the campaign, and the creation of the first after the Second World War coalition government of the Conservatives and Liberal-Democrats.