Recalibrating the EU's Leadership Constellation After Brexit: Beyond German Semi-Hegemony?

Abstract

In the wake of the financial crisis and the subsequent eurozone sovereign debt crisis Germany has gradually moved into the position of the European Union’s semi-hegemon and exercised increasingly uncompromising and unilateral leadership. The result has been the ordoliberal restructuring of the eurozone governance mechanisms and the determination of a liberal 'moral imperative' on the EU’s management of the mounting migration crisis. Both factors have substantially contributed to the Brexit decision in the United Kingdom and the growing political peripheralization of the Central-Eastern European member states. With the impending prospect of the UK's exit the EU consequently faces the urgent need to reinstill purpose into its political agenda and to improve the legitimacy of its policies and institutions. A more inclusive leadership approach beyond the current narrow focus on Germany's dominant role will be indispensable to achieve these goals. The panel will concentrate on the analysis of the weaknesses in the EU's current leadership constellation and the potential to invigorate the EU's political agenda in the aftermath of Brexit. Papers are expected to concentrate on Germany's European diplomacy in the context of the EU's internal and external challenges, the prospects for the revival of the Franco-German leadership axis, the prospects for the Weimar cooperation between Germany, France and Poland and the impact of the growing opposition of the Visegrád group towards Germany's liberal policy agenda.