Brigid Laffan (director of the Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies and Director of the Global Governance Programme at the European University Institute (EUI) in Florence) takes the emphasis off populism to explore what is defined as the EU’s ‘politics trap’. She argues that multi-level governance in the EU has outstripped multi-level politics. Both, the nature of the Union’s policy mix and the dynamic of EU and domestic politics have implications for the interaction and intersection between the dynamic of European integration and populist politics. Turning to populism, Laffan will offer three lenses for addressing that interaction and intersection: 1) the EU as the other to populism and thus a target for populists; 2) the EU as an arena for populists by providing populist parties with ‘windows of opportunity’; and 3) the challenge to core EU values and norms from populist governments. Laffan ends her keynote with a reflection on the impact of populism on the future of the Union.
Brigid Laffan has published widely on European Integration and studies the theme of Populism in relation to the future of the EU. Her latest publications include her co-edited book 'Core-periphery relations in the European Union: power and conflict in a dualist political economy' (2016) and her edited special issue of 'West European Politics, Europe’s union in crisis: tested and contested' (2016).
