For many observers, the European Union is mired in a deep crisis. Between sluggish growth; political turmoil following a decade of austerity politics; Brexit; and the rise of Asian influence, the EU is seen as a declining power on the world stage. Columbia Law professor Anu Bradford argues the opposite in her important new book The Brussels Effect: the EU remains an influential superpower that shapes the world in its image. By promulgating regulations that shape the international business environment, elevating standards worldwide, and leading to a notable Europeanization of many important aspects of global commerce, the EU has managed to shape policy in areas such as data privacy, consumer health and safety, environmental protection, antitrust, and online hate speech. And in contrast to how superpowers wield their global influence, the Brussels Effect - a phrase first coined by Bradford in 2012- absolves the EU from playing a direct role in imposing standards, as market forces alone are often sufficient as multinational companies voluntarily extend the EU rule to govern their global operations. The Brussels Effect shows how the EU has acquired such power, why multinational companies use EU standards as global standards, and why the EU's role as the world's regulator is likely to outlive its gradual economic decline, extending the EU's influence long into the future.

The 2020 edition of Health at a Glance: Europe focuses on the impact of the COVID‐19 crisis. Chapter 1 provides an initial assessment of the resilience of European health systems to the COVID-19 pandemic and their ability to contain and respond to the worst pandemic in the past century.

The sixteenth edition of Social policy in the European Union: state of play has a triple ambition. First, it provides easily accessible information to a wide audience about recent developments in both EU and domestic social policymaking. Second, the volume provides a more analytical reading, embedding the key developments of the year 2014 in the most recent academic discourses. Third, the forward-looking perspective of the book aims to provide stakeholders and policymakers with specific tools that allow them to discern new opportunities to influence policymaking. In this 2015 edition of Social policy in the European Union: state of play, the authors tackle the topics of the state of EU politics after the parliamentary elections, the socialisation of the European Semester, methods of political protest, the Juncker investment plan, the EU’s contradictory education investment, the EU’s contested influence on national healthcare reforms, and the neoliberal Trojan Horse of the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP).

Launched in March 2010 by the European Commission, the Europe 2020 strategy aims to achieve "smart, sustainable, and inclusive" growth. The engines for this growth are - Knowledge and innovation - Greener and more efficient use of resources - Higher employment combined with social and territorial cohesion This CEPS report takes an in-depth look at this major initiative and finds that the strategy itself needs to be revised in several important respects. First, the authors believe, R&D spending per se is not the best indicator of innovativeness; a new measure, intangible capital, would be more appropriate. Second, while increasing the share of the workforce with a university degree is important for competitiveness and employment, it is the quality of that education that matters more than the quantity. The study also finds that employment targets would be better reached by a skills upgrade among women who have the least education. Concerning climate change, the authors conclude that unless the EU increases the level of its ambition and adds a carbon import tariff, reduction targets for greenhouse gas emissions are likely to have a negligible impact on global climate change. Finally and more generally, the report argues that the 2020 strategy should acknowledge the importance of institutional efficiency at the national level.

So, you want to go to Europe? But how could you not? There's something awfully romantic about spending midnight in Paris, watching the lights shine on the famed La Seine. There's something special about hearing the growls and grunts of cars on the vias and around the piazzas of Rome. There's something magical about walking on the streets of London in front of Buckingham Palace as the roads close down for the iconic Changing of the Guard. Europe--rich with history, culture, art, and adventure-- is the ultimate destination for any backpacker from any background. For all the hullabaloo around this small piece of land attached to Asia, the fairytale-like legends that you hear from old men in the park, friends, and parents are, for most part, true stories. Well, maybe all except for that one time Uncle Marty claimed he found an old manuscript of Ulysses on a Dublin pub crawl. Pub crawls and pretentious reading material aside, Europe awaits you. Paraglide in the mountains of Gimmelwald, shimmy your way into the most exclusive clubs of Berlin, or scuba dive between two tectonic plates in Iceland. When in Dubrovnik, find love on Lokrum Island and, in Athens, find your Adonis or Aphrodite. Get blown away by the beat of the Pamplona's Running of the Bulls and cheer on European sports teams in Munich's beer gardens. Europe has been, and will continue to be, the starting point for the adventures of students all around the world. Join the company of your fellow wanderlust-stricken adventure seekers and set your trip apart from the rest. Ready, set, Let's Go!

This book attempts to answer the question: "How can Europe 2020, the EU's new strategy for smart, sustainable and inclusive growth, lead to a stronger social EU with less poverty and greater social cohesion?" Examined in depth are achieving the EU's ambitious social objectives to lift at least 20 million people out of the risk of poverty and exclusion by 2020 and the Union's four other mutually reinforcing targets. A key objective of the book is to take a critical look at and draw lessons from the past, 2000-2010 Lisbon Strategy. Another important objective is to explore the format and role of EU coordination and cooperation in the social field in the new EU governance framework, in a context marked by slow recovery after the global economic crisis. Finally, the book also makes proposals for the further reinforcement of this coordination and cooperation and for the improvement of the different instruments available at EU, national and sub-national levels.