From Brexit to the Covid-19 pandemic

EU Collective Power in Action

Since the outbreak of the global financial crisis in 2008, that morphed into an existential crisis for the single currency, the EU has been beset by crises amounting to a polycrisis. In this new Visions of Europe lecture, Brigid Laffan will analyse the EU’s response to two of those crises, Brexit and the Covid-19 pandemic

This is an online event

According to Laffan, the EU displayed collective power, akin to state capacity, in addressing the challenges of Brexit and Covid-19. Although not a classical state, the EU has been forced to enhance its capacity over the last decade when collectively responding to the urgency of crises. Enhanced capacity is defined as collective power to distinguish it from state capacity. The lecture will focus particularly on the role of political actors and collective institutions in delivering enhanced capacity.

About the speakers

Brigid Laffan is Emeritus Professor at the European University Institute. She was Director and Professor at the Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies and Director of the Global Governance Programme and the European Governance and Politics Programme at the European University Institute (EUI), Florence until her retirement in August 2021. She is a member of the Board of the Mary Robinson Foundation for Climate Justice. In November 2018 she was ranked among the women who shape Europe by POLITICO and was also awarded by the University of Limerick Alumni Association with its highest honour. In 2012 she was awarded the Ordre national du Mérite by the President of the French Republic, followed by the THESEUS Award for outstanding research on European Integration (2012) and the UACES Lifetime Achievement Award (2014).

Jonathan Zeitlin (moderator) is Distinguished Faculty Professor of Public Policy and Governance at the UvA and ACES Academic Director. His current research focuses on new forms of “experimentalist” governance within and beyond the European Union, with particular emphasis on market regulation, environmental protection, and social policy. He has (co)authored or edited 17 books and more than 100 peer-reviewed journal articles and book chapters. His most recent book (co-edited with Francesco Nicoli) is The European Union Beyond the Polycrisis? Integration and Politicization in an Age of Shifting Cleavages (Routledge 2020).