New EU extra-territorial level playing field rules may adversely impact UK investment in the bloc The European Union (EU) has introduced major new legislation which could have broad implications for extra-territorial jurisdiction over businesses based in any non-EU country including the UK. The Foreign Subsidies Regulation (FSR), which will apply [...]
There is a mystery for me in contemplating the political career of Nicola Surgeon. I first faced this during the 2015 General Election, which I spent largely in Scotland, campaigning for Unionist friends. I was hoping to see the “No” campaign victory in the 2014 referendum (in which I was [...]
Democratic backsliding has become such a defining trend in global politics over the past decades that the democratisation of the European Union has gone largely unnoticed.[1] After the entry into force of the Treaty of Lisbon on 1 December 2009, however, the EU has been advancing its transition from a [...]
By Andrew Hood and Peter Sellar, Fieldfisher LLP and Bob Savic, Federal Trust Divergence risks grow in post-Brexit EU and UK machinery standards The European Union’s new Machinery Regulation, approved by the EU Council of Ministers and the European Parliament in late January 2023, extensively revises the 2006 Machinery Directive. [...]
Presentation by Dr Hywel Ceri Jones CMG on the occasion of the celebration of the 35th anniversary of Erasmus+ held by the European Commission in Brussels on 14th December 2022.[1] Note: An expanded version of this speech was published in March 2023 by AIACE Vox Vice President Schinas and Commissioner [...]
Dr Andrew Black, Global Policy Institute, [email protected] and Professor Sam Whimster, Global Policy Institute, [email protected] Rationale for change and reform: Britain is one of the most centralized democracies in the OECD. Resource allocation decisions are centralized in London, and instructions are handed down ‘vertically’ to the devolved nations and [...]
It is fair to say that federalism makes most UK unionists uncomfortable when it is considered at all. It is seen as foreign and alien to the principle of absolute parliamentary sovereignty located in Westminster. In the 1970s the Kilbrandon Commission notoriously dismissed federalism as a constitutional structure for states not [...]
On 29th October 2022, I took part in the Federal Trust’s conference on the future of the United Kingdom. Though the day had a focus on federalism my preferred model leans towards a form of close constitutional confederalism, which neatly deals with the sovereignty aspirations of the home nations in [...]
Even with the introduction of devolution in Scotland and Wales at the end of the 20th Century, there is a sense that these isles are now approaching a significant constitutional crossroads. Each nation has, in recent decades, developed an individual political culture with clear distinguishing features from the workings of [...]
What has happened to my country? I have been a student, activist, MP, minister and writer in its political life for five decades. Never has it been so broken, divided, confused, uncertain about its future. The Queen’s death marked the last moment when the United Kingdom was briefly itself. Britain [...]
