Robbin is currently finishing her BA in European Studies from Maastricht University, by writing her thesis on the position of Poland and Hungary regarding the current EU migration crisis. She spent an Erasmus semester in Vilnius, Lithuania, and has developed interests in European and international affairs, development, human rights and the normative power of the European Union. She also works as a Development Assistant for Human Rights Watch in Amsterdam.
During times of crisis or discontent, people’s political preferences tend to adjust from mostly centrist towards more extreme ends of the spectrum, be it either left or right. The European far-right has been on the rise over the last few years. Populists have gained ground across the continent and Euroscepticism seems to be thriving, even against a much bigger pro-European movement. The centre-right European People’s Party (EPP) is the biggest political group in the European Parliament and has been a steady pro-European factor for years. However, its position could soon be compromised.
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The European Union’s biggest reform of data protection laws in over 20 years – the new General Data Protection Regulation or GDPR – has become effective as of May 25.
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After much debate, the European Commission chose to initiate the infamous ‘Article 7 procedure’ against Poland in December 2017. As the name already implies, this procedure is established in article 7 of the Treaty of the European Union (TEU) and designed to be able to take action against member states that risk breaching EU values.
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The high-speed double promotion of Martin Selmayr from European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker’s Head of Cabinet to secretary-general of the European Commission hardly went unnoticed. Selmayr succeeded the former secretary-general, Alexander Italianer, as the head of a workforce of 33,000 Commission civil servants in a matter of minutes. It wasn’t long before shots started getting fired from different directions.
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