Current Research

Europa Institute members engage in world-class research on various academic and policy-oriented aspects of European integration. Research projects, often led by Europa members, are funded by the Institute as well as prestigious external funders and research networks. These projects involve innovative and cutting-edge research, produce academic knowledge and real-world insight and serve to establish European and international research networks.

Research Projects

(Con)Founding the Union: Equal Treatment in an Unequal Europe

Researcher: Prof Niamh Nic Shuibhne

This project, funded by a Leverhulme Trust Major Research Fellowship (2016-2019), intends to evaluate the legal framework guaranteeing equal treatment for EU citizens. It assesses whether the legal concepts and definitions – for example, of ‘work’ and ‘worker’ – that are currently applied in EU law are adequate to cope with the diverse problems that citizens who exercise free movement rights face in reality. The project also explores whether a move away from insistence upon the uniform application of EU law might, counter-intuitively, advance the level of equal protection actually enjoyed by EU citizens.