Armin Cuyvers lectures in Vienna on Heads of State in the EU
What has European integration meant for the role and powers of Heads of State? And what should it mean, both at the EU and at the national level?
On 2 December, Armin Cuyvers (Assistant Professor at the Europa Institute) addressed these challenges in a lecture at the law school of the University of Vienna. In his lecture, entitled ‘Heads of state and European integration: Executive power and legitimacy through the European looking glass’, he addressed the legal and constitutional challenges and opportunities raised by the gradual incorporation of Heads of State and Government in the EU constitutional architecture. The lecture argued hat in effect the increased role and powers of Heads of State at the EU level requires a better foundation at the national constitutional level, and that indeed the failure to adapt national constitutions to the changing EU reality is one cause behind the increased use of referenda and disruptive events such as Brexit.