The RCC Director's ...

In the aftermath of the European financial crisis, the lack of risk diversification in the financial system is the main cause of the fast retrenchment of capital flows within national boundaries. Europe needs private risk sharing mechanisms to withstand asymmetric shocks, such as the recent financial crisis. In December 2014, ECMI and CEPS formed the European Capital Markets Expert Group (ECMEG) with the aim of providing a long-term contribution to the debate on the Capital Markets Union (CMU) project, proposed by the European Commission.

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This panel will explore the existing policy problems and the possible options for reforming the EU copyright framework as provided by EU Directive 29/2001 on Copyright in the Information Society (InfoSoc Directive) and related legislation, with a specific focus on the need to strengthen the Internal Market for creative content.

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The European asset management industry has witnessed a solid growth in recent years. Despite the significant steps taken in the past decade (UCITS, AIFMD, PRIPS and KIID), the European asset management sector remains highly fragmented, resulting in suboptimal size of funds and higher costs for investors. Much more needs to be done in order to achieve a truly pan-European market that is competitive, attractive and transparent vis-á-vis its investors (in particular the retail segment).

The growth of the asset management sector has directed policy-makers’ attention towards the...

Budgetary discipline in the EU is established in the Stability and Growth Pact. The pact consists of agreements between the member states on the maximum levels of their government deficits and government debts. It consists of a preventive arm and a corrective arm. At present the government deficit and goverment debt of some EU member states are higher than the agreed maximum levels. In response to the economic and financial crisis, the EU adopted new policy in 2010 that came into force in 2011.

The rules on budgetary discipline have been reinforced, agreements have been made...

The EU is facing an unprecedented crisis with very significant flows of refugees and migrants for which the current system was not designed. An initial Schengen Agreement was signed in 1985 between five countries (Benelux countries, France and Germany) targeting a gradual abolition of border checks. In 1990, these countries signed the Convention implementing the Schengen Agreement, which contained a series of provisions designed to compensate for the abolition of border checks through greater cooperation in the fields of the movement of people (visas, immigration, asylum). This agreement...

The effects of the TTIP have become a highly debated issue although the European vision has not arrived adequately to the US public opinion. The majority of economic quantitative analyses have shown a beneficial impact for both the EU and the US in terms of higher aggregate trade, GDP growth, wages and job creation. Due to its sheer size, such a trade agreement could become a regulatory hegemon. This implies that the EU and the US could set global standards for commercial law, that China and other emerging economies would have little choice but to follow. However, its popularity is...

The EU Court of Justice (CJEU) has played a major and pioneering role in the protection of fundamental rights in the European Union. In December 2009, the Lisbon Treaty entered into force and, thus, the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union (‘the Charter’) acquired legally binding force. One of the main objectives of the Charter has been to end the Union’s ambivalence about fundamental rights.

However, considering the limits of the fundamental rights structure in the EU’s multi-level legal system, the CJEU has played a major role in defining the scope of the...

By exploring the intentions behind the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), what it protects and why, and comparing it to the US approach to privacy, this debate will highlight strengths and shortcomings in both legal systems perspectives on privacy and data protection regulation. It will help to shed some light on the possibilities of a response by American legislators, including the use of GDPR as a model.

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Once more, the RCC and the  RCC Director´s Jean Monnet ad personam Chair in European Law and Government at Harvard University are proud to sponsor The Summit on the Future of Europe. The Summit  is an initiative of the Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies (CES) at Harvard University. Since 2014, this annual conference convenes scholars and public leaders to debate critical challenges facing Europe. The fifth annual Summit is a partnership of CES, the Harvard Kennedy School’s ...

RCC is proud to announce a special event for RCC Fellows. Please join us for an off-the-record conversation with Joaquin Almunia about current issues and the political situation in Spain, Europe and the World. 

RSVP is required for this event. Please note that this event is restricted to RCC Fellows and that due to limited seating availability, spaces will be...

Henry Timms will discuss the ideas of his most recent work, with Jeremy Heimans: New Power: How Power Works in our Hyperconnected World—and How to Make it Work for You,featured as the Big Idea in the Harvard Business Review and by CNN as one of the ten top ideas to change the world in 2015. New Power has been called a “useful lens to create change” by Sir Richard Branson, and described as a book that “…will inform and inspire all” by Jane Goodall, the UN Messenger of Peace, and “a must-read… a gift for our movements” by Black Lives Matter co-founder,...

Join Professor Jose M. Martinez  as he discusses options for legal careers in the European space and in the European Union. This informal discussion will center around career paths working within the European Commission and other European Institutions as well as other public institutions in the European Space. The second part will center around working with European institutions such as consulting for the Commission, the Parliament or the OCDE.

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Cross-border dispute settlement through arbitration keeps growing at the global level, especially on bilateral investment and international tax matters. Yet, the recent Achmea judgment of the Court of Justice of the European Union establishes legal constraints to ad hoc international arbitration in order to protect the due process of law. A comparison between the legal framework for arbitration in the EU and the US is of paramount importance for predicting the future use of this tool for settling cross-border disputes across the globe.

In 2016, the Paris Climate Agreement limited the increase of the global average temperature to 1.5 °C. The governance architecture to make these goals a reality has been bottom-up, fragmented and poly-centric. Two years after Paris, the EU has reformed its climate and energy policies, adopted multiple targets, strengthened the emissions trading system (ETS), enlarged its portfolio of energy efficiency and renewable energy regulations and improved its monitoring and reporting requirements. The US and China have approached the climate issue very differently. While China has become more...