Current Projects

Directors: Prof. Michael Kaeding, Prof. Funda Tekin

Duration: 2024-2026

Funding: Horizon Europe, Grant Agreement 101132124

external pageWebsite InvigoratEU

Project Description:

The project has three main goals: reforming the EU's enlargement strategy to adapt to geopolitical changes, responding to other actors' ambitions in the Eastern Neighbourhood and Western Balkans, and rebuilding the foreign policy arsenal to address new military threats. The initiative incorporates modernization and geopolitical logics and utilizes new data sources, such as public opinion surveys, scenarios, external influence indices, and a social policy compliance scoreboard.

The second goal involves developing an evidence-based, forward-looking vision for the EU's political agenda and institutional frameworks. Through collaboration with various entities, including InvigorateU's Expert Hub, Civil Society Network, Youth Labs, and Workshops for Young Professionals, the project aims to co-design a multidimensional toolbox, resulting in context-sensitive and actionable policy recommendations for European and national political stakeholders, with a focus on engaging young European citizens.

The third goal centers on deploying a communication, dissemination, and exploitation strategy to maximize the impact of recommendations from day one. Ultimately, InvigorateU emphasizes its deliberately large consortium, respecting the diversity of Europe and political perspectives. With significant representation from countries like Georgia, Moldova, Ukraine, North Macedonia, Montenegro, and Serbia, complemented by a Civil Society Network spanning Western Balkan countries, Georgia, Moldova, and Ukraine, the project strives to invigorate EU policies for enhanced European resilience.

Director: Prof. Frank Schimmelfennig

Duration: 2021-2026

Funding: European Research Council, ERC Advanced Grant No. 101018300

external pageWebsite EUROBORD

Summary

Integration crises and geopolitical shifts have put the borders of the European Union (EU) in the focus of attention and contestation. Current developments highlight how strongly European integration is affected by outside events and cross-border transactions. Yet theories of European integration focus almost exclusively on the internal boundaries between the member states. EUROBORD therefore develops and tests a novel ‘bordering theory’ aiming to explain how external boundary developments affect the trajectory of integration.

The bordering theory proposes an account of how ‘bordering’ – the making and configuration of the EU’s boundaries – affects ‘ordering’: the structure of politics and institutions in the EU. Specifically, it analyses how ‘debordering’ (the expansion, opening and incongruence of the EU’s boundaries) in the post-Cold War period has generated integration problems and political conflicts, which have triggered a process of ‘rebordering’ (retrenchment or closure) in turn. EUROBORD examines the conditions and mechanisms that lead to alternative configurations of the EU’s boundaries.

EUROBORD introduces innovative conceptual frameworks, automated data collection techniques and new datasets to map the changing configuration of EU borders and study their effects on (i) economic, cultural, political and military transactions across these boundaries, (ii) member state political performance, (iii) European party positions and conflict, and (iv) boundary policies and the trajectory of European integration. This comprehensive data allows EUROBORD to conduct the first systematic empirical study of the effects of external bordering in European integration, using a mix of panel analyses and case studies. EUROBORD will thereby generate a more complete and adequate understanding of the dynamics of European integration and provide insights on the political causes and effects of border design.

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Publications

Frank Schimmelfennig (2021) Rebordering Europe: external boundaries and integration in the European Union, Journal of European Public Policy, 28:3, 311-330, DOI: external pagehttps://doi.org/10.1080/13501763.2021.1881589