Introduction On Friday, 8 March, just one month before Finland’s Parliamentary Elections, Finland’s coalition government collapsed. Prime Minister, Juha Sipilä announced his resignation taking the blame for his government’s inability to reform Finland’s health care and social systems. With one of the most rapidly ageing populations in the world, reform of its health system has…
Brexit has become a journey as much as a destination. At their emergency summit in Brussels this week, the UK and the 27 remaining EU governments agreed to delay Brexit – for a second time – until 31 October (with some caveats). This new extension means that the Brexit journey now resembles travelling on a…
The Slovakian electorate went to the polls over two rounds in March to elect Slovakia’s 5th President since gaining independence in 1993. On Saturday, 30 March Zuzana Čaputová became the country’s first ever female president. Background Slovakia is a parliamentary republic with a prime minister, who holds most executive powers, and a president, who…
The UK House of Commons has voted overwhelmingly to delay Brexit. The UK is due to leave the EU on 29 March 2019 but last night, Thursday 14 March, MPs voted by a hefty majority of 413 to 202 in favour of the UK seeking an extension of the article 50-based Brexit negotiations with the…
On 6 February, the Oireachtas Joint Committee on European Affairs (OJCEA) met with the Director of Eurofound Juan Menéndez-Valdés to discuss that agency’s social research findings on Ireland in comparison to EU Member States and five candidate countries. Eurofound is an EU research agency, based in Dublin, working on developing better social, employment and work-related…
Estonians went to the polls on Sunday, 3 March to elect a new Parliament, known as the Riigikogu. The current opposition centre-right party, Reform, defied pre-election opinion polls, winning 28.8 per cent of the vote and 34 seats (just over a third of the total). Pre-election favourites, Estonia’s current governing centre-left party, Centre, came second,…
With only 30 days until 29 March, the current official date for Brexit, both Ireland and the EU are preparing for a very undesirable but still-possible outcome: that the United Kingdom would leave the EU without ratifying the EU-UK Withdrawal Agreement. Without that agreement, there would not be the legal arrangements in place (as today)…
On 1 January, Romania took over the rotating Presidency of the Council of the European Union from Austria, marking the first time Romania has held the Presidency since joining the EU in 2007. In 2009, the Lisbon Treaty established a system whereby a trio of Member States consecutively hold the Presidency, working together on long-term…
Nothing has changed “We can choose to leave with no deal, risk no Brexit at all or choose to unite and support the best deal that could be negotiated”, UK Prime Minister Theresa May told the House of Commons on 15 November 2018. That was just before the special summit where, after 18 months of…
EU leaders met in Brussels on 13-14 December for the final European Council Summit of the year to discuss a wide range of issues including: the Multiannual Financial Framework; the Single Market; migration; and external relations. On Thursday, EU leaders met in EU27 format to discuss Brexit, following an address given by UK Prime Minister,…