Ece Özbey is a doctoral researcher in Comparative Politics and a lecturer at the University of Cologne, where she is pursuing her PhD on populist contagion and anti-populism in the United Kingdom. Her research spans Euroscepticism, political competition, radicalization, and democracy, with a primary focus on European democracies. She holds an MSc in European Studies and a BSc in International Relations. Ece is also the Co-Managing Editor of the Review of Democracy, the journal of the Central European University’s Democracy Institute, where she previously worked as a Global Forum for Democracy and Development Fellow. She is affiliated with the METU Jean Monnet Centre of Excellence and has published on European integration and EU–Turkey relations. She has also held visiting positions at academic institutions in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Chile and is actively involved in various international research networks, including OPUS Initiative and Team Populism
This policy study analyses how the European Parliament (EP) has engaged with the European Commission’s Rule of Law Reports (RoLRs) during the ninth legislative term (2019-2024). It also examines what this engagement reveals about the EP’s understanding of the rule of law and its capacity to strengthen EU-level democratic safeguards.
Drawing on a qualitative analysis of parliamentary resolutions, debates and voting patterns, the policy study examines whether the EP approaches the rule of law primarily as a procedural-legal standard or as a broader normative principle encompassing fundamental rights, equality and democratic inclusion.
Academic Mentor: Felix Butzlaff, political scientist and postdoctoral fellow at the Central European University Vienna
Political Mentor: Juan Fernando López Aguilar, S&D Coordinator LIBE Committee
Joint PhD at the University of Edinburgh and KU Leuven
Through its eclectic 20 principles, the European Pillar of Social Rights is an opportunity to break silos and look at social development as the network of challenges that it truly is.
Departing from the rather long history of European social rights, the implementation of the EPSR must follow a holistic approach, identifying synergies with discussions it already hints at in its 20 principles.
In order to contribute to the identification of such synergies, this paper attempts to shed light on three transversal issues that national governments and the European Commission must bear in mind when implementing the EPSR: civil rights; labour relations; and gender equality. The analysis departs from the setting of the current model of welfare state in post-World War II Europe and it ends with the Porto Summit 2021, reflecting on the documents approved and what they can mean for a post-COVID-19 Social Europe.
Read the Paper:
Three ideas for a stronger Social Europe in a post- Covid 19 recovery
Political Mentor: YES Vice President and S&D MEP Alicia Homs
Academic Mentor: Matjaz Nahtigal, Associate professor at the Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Ljubljana