Jean Monnet Center of Excellence

Dr. Alarian presented an article version of a chapter of her current book project––Voice Before Loyalty: Immigrant Voting Rights in the European Union. This article explores the contemporary European political debate on the electoral participation of immigrant non-citizens. Although European Union (EU) member-states can decide on a case-by-case basis whether to provide voting rights to third country citizens (i.e., immigrants without EU citizenship), they are largely bound by EU law to guarantee EU citizens an extensive array of political rights, including the right to vote and stand as a candidate in local elections. This article addresses this policy variation, exploring how non-citizen voting rights beyond the state can affect national citizenship and immigrant belonging.

Ms. Maier worked with the Peace, Action, Training, and Research Institute of Romania. They are currently delivering peacebuilding and conflict prevention trainings to stakeholders within the European Union in order to strengthen the security of European Union (EU) member states. She represented the organization at the International Conference on Europeanization, Westernization, and the European Union in Rome, Italy. She will deliver an oral and a poster presentation that showcases the organization’s unique approach to peacebuilding within the European Union.

Dr. Langer is conducting research that delves into the electoral campaigns of far-right parties in the 2024 European Parliament elections in Austria and Hungary, with a specific focus on nationalist populist narratives and discursive strategies. As the elections are scheduled from June 6 to 9, 2024, the research concentrated on the period leading up to the election days. Traditionally skeptical of European integration and critical of EU institutions, parties such as the Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ) and Fidesz in Hungary have garnered significant support and are expected to achieve electoral victories. This research will illuminate the discursive strategies employed by these parties to mobilize support and shape electoral outcomes, shedding light on the implications for European politics and governance. His research will take place in summer 2024 in Vienna and Budapest.

Ms. Tomasi was invited to present her co-authored research on oversight and accountability in the European Parliament’s Monetary Dialogue (MD). She took part in the workshop, “The European Central Bank at a Crossroads,” hosted by the University of Victoria. The research project contributes to a growing subset of literature on the MD that shifts the focus from what the European Central Bank (ECB) gets from the dialogues to how Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) utilize the MD. To achieve this, the research and subsequent paper analyze and code MEP questions during the quarterly Monetary Dialogue using the more nuanced theoretical framework on accountability. Participation at the conference provided impactful and insightful feedback on the working paper and ongoing research. Following on the conference, the paper was accepted to the special issue on the ECB in Politics and Governance to be published in 2025.