Shaping the Future of Europe

Once again, Europe is at a crossroads: Although there is regular talk of crisis, trust in the European Union (EU) remains surprisingly stable. Nonetheless, Europe faces many internal and external challenges, such as Euroscepticism, the return of nationalism, societal and technological developments, climate change, terrorism, and an ever-changing global political, economic and societal landscape, which may be in need of structural modifi cations. Most recently, the coronavirus pandemic has been added to this non-exhaustive list of challenges. While novel common European solutions might be prone to teething problems, they might entail solutions which can be allied to other areas of EU law. It is precisely against this backdrop that we pose this question: What could and should be done to put Europe and the EU in the position to properly address its challenges and, more generally, how should we shape the future of Europe. The present volume contains elaborated versions of the papers presented at the 2020 Salzburg Young European Law Scholars (YELS) conference (Tagung junger Europarechtler*innen). All papers deal with essential topics related to the future of Europe and tackle a diverse array of issues in EU law, from institutional issues such as lobbying via novel approaches and complementary currencies to fundamental rights challenges like terrorist content online and to external action issues such as a future European army.