I am a Professor of European Politics at Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf and an Associate Editor at the Journal of European Public Policy. My research focuses on the institutional and political development of the European Union and European politics more broadly. I am particularly interested in explaining fundamental and long-term developments, including the parliamentarization and differentiated integration of the EU as well as the rise of, and the EU’s struggle with, democratic backsliding, autocratization, and illiberal actors among the member states and in its neighborhood. Many of my projects are linked by an analytical interest in the influence of parliaments and parliamentary actors, notably parties, on EU politics and a normative concern for strengthening the democratic quality and legitimacy of European integration.

Some of my research questions include:

• Why and when does the EU (fail to) act against democratic backsliding?
• What strategies do autocratic and illiberal actors employ in EU institutions?
• What explains differentiation and flexibility in European integration?
• How and why has the role of parliaments in the EU changed over time?
• Why do international parliamentary institutions emerge and spread?