Welcome to the Jean Monnet Chair for Political Science and EU integration studies at the University of Innsbruck.  The Jean Monnet programme stimulates teaching, research and reflection on European integration at higher education institutions worldwide. With generous funding from the European Commission, we carry out and supervise EU-related research, teaching, and outreach (…)

The Innsbruck Center for European Research (ICER), housed within the Department for Political Science at the University of Innsbruck, brings together research and university teaching facilities on European integration and European Union studies. ICER aims to strengthen the critical and multidisciplinary analysis of the EU, examine the EU’s frameworks for poly-archic, multi-level and –actor governance, provide a forum to stimulate the development of innovative analytical tools and teaching resources, increase the accessibility of information sources on the EU, and to stimulate the debate and research on the EU. The Center is an integral part of Innsbruck University’s Research Center “Governance and Civil Society”, and cooperates with the Research Centers “Föderalismus – Politik und Recht” and the Research Cluster “Alpiner Raum - Mensch und Umwelt“.

Research carried out by ICER focuses on three core subjects:

Development of and theorizing the EU's primary law and its related socio-political bases

• Processes to render the EU, both the Member States’ and its supranational institutions, instruments and procedures more democratic, efficient and effective,
• European “soft law” or “tertiary law”, i.e. inter-institutional agreements , rules of procedure, and other informal, inter- and intra-institutional arrangements as constitutive parts for developing European primary law ,
  
• Interparliamentary cooperation with regard to the changing roles and functions of the European Parliament and (sub)-national parliaments ,
• Political parties and EU integration, right-wing populist, nationalist and eurosceptic parties in the EU.
• Discussions about the future development of the EU and theoretical concept building concerning conditions, drivers and brakes for EU integration and disintegration.

Decision-making processes, negotiation strategies and conceptual problems regarding the implementation of EU policies

• Balancing EMU and reforming European Economic and Social Policy
  
• Common Agriculture Policy and structural reforms in the alpine regions
• International Agreements and the EU’s Common Commercial Policies
• European Environmental Policy
• Linking the Open Method of Coordination with traditional, legally binding instruments
• Consistency of supranational and intergovernmental structures, instruments and processes in the EU's external relations
• Balancing Security, Freedom, Civil Rights and Justice in EU Justice and Home affairs

Policy preferences of state and civil-society actors in the EU member states

• Intercultural processes and conflicts
• Processes of direct democracy in European Policy
  
• Trans-Alpine and Trans-Arctic cooperation in European Policy
• EU policy making in Austria and inter-ministerial coordination