The Latest CIFE Policy Papers

The EU AI Act: The Impact on the Public Sector, Daan van Pinxteren

Abstract:

The EU Artificial Intelligence (AI) Act, effective from August 2024, is the world’s first comprehensive AI regulation, significantly impacting AI used in the public sector. It introduces a risk-based framework, categorising AI systems from minimal to high risk, with stringent compliance requirements for the latter. Public authorities face challenges in balancing the benefits of AI with the expected costs of compliance, particularly with regards to harnessing the risk framework and exceptions to the rules, fostering trustworthy AI and citizen trust and navigating expected enforcement. This in turn may ultimately require a reinvention of public AI strategies to strike an optimal balance between benefits and costs.

EU Defence Policy: From Crisis Management to Common Defence?, Kyriakos Revelas

Abstract:

The end of the post-cold war European security architecture following the Russian invasion of Ukraine, coupled with doubts about the US commitment to NATO obligations, made territorial defence again a central preoccupation. This prompts the question of the EU security and defence policy shifting from crisis management to deterrence and defence. This paper examines whether such change is institutionally possible and explores the political conditions for common defence and the defence industry role.

Energy Poverty in Europe: Local Authorities as a Game Changer?, Rachel Guyet

Abstract:

Energy poverty is a widespread phenomenon in Europe. If the EU and the member states have been strongly involved to mitigate the social consequences of the energy price crisis in the winter 2022-2023, local authorities are an essential resource for households exposed to energy poverty. However they are facing obstacles to making their action more effective. Despite the difficulties (some of them are examined in this paper), they are able to mobilise formal and informal networks to develop experimentations.

The Social Climate Fund as a Catalyst for the French Energy Poverty Strategy, Joren Schepers

Abstract:

In 2023, the Social Climate Fund (SCF) was approved alongside the expansion of the Emission Trading System to the building and transport sector. The fund redistributes a part of the revenue made by this expansion with the aim of preventing the most vulnerable people from being exposed to transport and energy poverty as a result of the pricing policy. The SCF regulation sets out ambitious objectives, allocating a total budget of €86.7 billion from 2026 to 2032. By analysing France's existing policy on energy poverty and the alignment with the targets of the SCF, this research gives an insight into the fund's capacity and whether it can live up to the expectations.

Towards a Global Governance Global Barometer, Michel-Henry Bouchet and Alexandre Landi

Abstract:

Although the concept of good governance has become the obligatory reference in academic round tables and meetings of international bodies or rating agencies, there is no consensus on its definition, content or measurement. Everyone defines governance according to their needs. Overall, country risk analysts, policymakers and field practitioners have no shortage of governance indicators, sometimes with a great deal of opacity and where digital sophistication gives the illusion of scientific content. We define governance as the robustness of institutions which help transforms economic growth into sustained and inclusive development. Clearly, fighting corruption is a crucial ingredient of governance, together with accountability, transparency and regulatory quality. To measure the level of governance in one hundred developing countries, a new composite indicator has been built, based on specific sub-indices of institutional quality, government efficiency and corruption. Its added value stems from an “expert assessment” that is based on seasoned country risk analysts, including professors and trained alumni from CIFE’s and Luiss’s Joint Master in Global Economic Governance and Policy Affairs. We hope this new “country governance gamut” will help draw the attention of policymakers and risk analysts to the quality of socio-economic management in too many rich countries with poor people.