Latest blog articles

  • Better No Treaty Than a Weak One – A Summary of INC-5

    In March 2022, as part of efforts to address the triple planetary crisis, the United Nations Environment Assembly (UNEA) unanimously adopted a resolution calling for the negotiation of an international legally binding instrument to end plastic pollution – the Plastics Treaty. Negotiations began...

    INC-5 conference
  • Corona-creativity-boost or corona-energy-drain?

    Creativity needed more than ever in the creative industry


    The Corona-crisis and the lockdown hits severely, and particularly the cultural and creative industries. Already a traditionally precarious industry not having deep pockets, COVID‑19 knocks out most core activities of the sector. Concerts...

    pixabay-2617224-music-notes-sheets-theatre-show.jpg
  • Escape from EU regulations is loss of leverage

    About 100 British officials will arrive in Brussels today to start the mammoth negotiations on the future relationship between the EU and the UK. The two sides are poles apart. The UK wants regulatory detachment from the EU while the EU insists or regulatory alignment.

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  • “Member State v Member State” and other peculiarities of EU Law

    The European Union prides itself for being based on the rule of law. Indeed, the success and longevity of the EU as an integration project can be partly explained by, on the one hand, the willingness of Member States to abide by the obligations that stem from the Treaties and, on the other, the...

    LBM blog Phedon Nicolaides EU member states
  • It has to be different?!

    On 8 September 2015 State Secretary for Justice and Security Klaas Dijkhoff announced that from now on only refugees who have applied for asylum in a safe place outside the EU would be accepted in the Netherlands. The government wants to put an end to asylum-seekers placing their fate in the hands...

    Bulgaria’s zero refugee integration policy and beyond