Paul Blokker


Are Conventions Outdated? Lessons for Europe from Chile

In the run-up to the EU Council Summit of 23-24 June, the German Minister of Foreign Affairs Annalena Baerbock called the idea of a holding a Convention for EU Treaty changes outdated. She stated “I have no intention whatsoever of simply taking twenty-year old recipes out of the drawer.” Baerbock wasn’t the only sceptic in […]

The citizen: object or subject?

While there is an abundance of (quantitatively oriented) surveys on citizen attitudes towards Europe, here I argue that a mixed approach, in which citizens are not only political objects in a pre-fabricated design, but actively engage and articulate their subjective positions, is preferable and brings rich insights. This is the aim of a recently held […]