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Built on the values of freedom and prosperity, democracy and peace, the European Union has created over time a huge constitutional framework, culminating in the Lisbon Treaty, adopted in 2007 and known as the Treaty on European Union. It reflected the will of the then 27 Member States to live together in a cohesive society, guided by the principle of subsidiarity, and to offer neighboring countries the opportunity to join the Union. As regards EU enlargement, the procedure was laid down in principle in Article 49 TEU; for reasons of symmetry, the Treaty introduced Article 50 to cover the possible scenario of a Member State leaving the Union. Although no one expected it, Article 50 TEU was activated by the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland following a referendum on the so-called Brexit in the summer of 2016. At the beginning of 2020, after lengthy negotiations, the British - Eurosceptics who had made a discordant note for 43 years in the implementation of common policies - effectively left the EU, hoping for a better life and leaving us to reflect on the "innocence" of a treaty article drafted from too much democracy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The European Commission, the executive power and initiator of legislative processes in the European Union, has been the focus of Germany's European policy in the 21st Century. The analysis in the article shows the priorities of German politicians included (1) appointing the President of the Commission in line with their wishes, (2) ensuring candidates from Germany the most important and prestigious positions in every college, and (3) gaining influence on the course of EC work. The adoption of the critical analysis of sources, the institutional-legal method and the decision-making method as a research method allowed the thesis that the EC in Germany's European policy was initially the foundation of the future EU political model (federation), in practice, however, Chancellor Merkel's actions pushed it to the far side. The German government together with France had the greatest influence on the Lisbon Treaty. Macron and Merkel refused to accept the „ Spitzenkandidate" idea, which could lead to democratization of the way the president of the European Commission was elected, which means deepening the democratic deficit in the EU. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

My article addresses the role of the two post-Lisbon High Representatives (HRs), Catherine Ashton and Federica Mogherini, in EU approach to the Eastern neighbourhood. Adopting a broad conceptualisation of EU foreign policy and drawing on the scholarly literature on new intergovernmentalism, it focuses on events that marked the HRs' mandates in the cases of Kosovo and Ukraine. In the case of Kosovo, it examines the HRs' role in the conclusion of the so-called Brussels Agreement (April 2013); and of the August 2015 agreements. In the case of Ukraine, it reconstructs how the HRs dealt with the events leading up to the November 2013 Vilnius Summit; and with those leading up to the conclusion in February 2015 of the Minsk II Agreement. The article argues that the European Council exerts tight control over the post-Lisbon HR, and EU foreign policy-making processes more generally. Nonetheless, the empirical analysis demonstrates that, under certain circumstance, the HR can significantly influence EU foreign policy in the post-Lisbon era. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Polish membership in the European Union finds its expression, among other things, in the powers of the Polish Sejm to participate in the European law-making process. The rules of this participation are provided for in the heterogeneous, fluctuating and evolving body of European and domestic law. Its complex nature, stretching between the constitutional foundations of political power, on the one hand, and the procedural matters of the parliamentary practice, on the other, offers a wide range of legal challenges to anyone who applies it. The paper aims to reveal that diversity and addresses some aspects of parliamentary practice when dealing with matters involving the EU. The issues of concern are selected with respect to the experience gained and best practice developed by the Sejm's legal services: the Legislative Bureau and the Bureau of Research. All of them are systemic and - as it is argued - derived directly from the still unsettled question of the constitutional basis for the newly acquired competences of the national parliament to act on the European stage. The paper deals with the accountability of the Sejm's committee for EU matters, cross-border interparliamentary cooperation and the subsidiarity check, as well as the legal representation of the Sejm in the European forum. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

'When I was your age, Pluto was a planet' was a popular joke after the celestial body's reclassification as a 'dwarf planet'. In many ways, the story of Pluto is an appropriate metaphor for the United Kingdom after Brexit. Just as textbooks on astronomy had to be updated to reflect Pluto's changed status, legal scholarship needs to adapt to the fact that the UK is relegating itself into the outer orbits of the European system of integration and cooperation, yet remains unable to break free from the centre's gravitational pull. Crucially, the UK has become an object of EU external action, rather than a subject that can manipulate the levers from the inside. This change is also of particular significance for the scholarship of EU external relations. Highlighting, organising, and explaining the changes that Brexit causes for the field and with a view to charting its way forward, this article argues that the UK's withdrawal will contribute to the further normalisation of EU external relations law as a field of scholarship. Following a brief explanation of why EU external relations law is a doubly peculiar area of scholarship and an overview of the origins and development of EU external relations law as a field, the article elaborates on three main consequences of Brexit for EU external relations law research and explains how each contributes to normalisation: disposing of the most 'awkward member', boosting reforms for greater effectiveness, and infusing a sense of geopolitical realism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]