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NEW PUBLICATION on African regional cooperation
. • Regional organisations have proliferated in Africa over the decades, with different organisations attempting to address similar issues in similar parts of the continent. • International donors have helped create this overlapping situation by funding new and existing African regional organisations without questioning the downsides of doing so. • In recent years, these organisations have increasingly sought to concentrate on security issues, contributing to a rise in the use of ‘hard security’ solutions at the expense of ‘people-centred’ approaches. • This proliferation comes with further costs, such as wasted resources, and ‘forum shopping’ by state leaders. • Europeans and other international donors should take stock of the situation they…
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Crisis presidency: How Portuguese leadership can guide the EU into the post-covid era
. The upcoming Portuguese EU presidency should emphasise the need to build European sovereignty. The presidency should provide global leadership and shape the international order, especially in light of the fact that many Europeans have lost confidence in the transatlantic relationship and fear a world dominated by US-China competition. The presidency should handle pre-coronavirus issues in line with European voters’ perceptions of the new reality created by the crisis. These issues include: the UK-EU relationship after Brexit, the EU’s relationships with Africa and India, climate change, digital transformation, and social inequality. In early 2020, Portugal outlined an agenda for its presidency of the European Council in the first…
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Lessons from Belarus: How the EU can support clean elections in Moldova and Georgia
The election fraud in Belarus in August 2020 sparked the biggest protests in the country’s history. Ultimately, the demonstrations may usher in a completely new political system and sense of national identity. President Alyaksandr Lukashenka may retain power by sacrificing national sovereignty to Russia, with massive implications for the security and well-being of all Belarus’s neighbours. In a new policy brief, ECFR’s Senior Policy Fellow Andrew Wilson argues that the European Union could play a more significant role in upcoming elections in Moldova and Georgia. The bloc has greater leverage to prevent fraudulent activity in these two Eastern Partnership countries, as it has a much closer relationship with them than…
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The new China consensus: How Europe is growing wary of Beijing
The relationship between EU member states and China is undergoing a transformation that the coronavirus crisis has accelerated. While efforts to enhance trade and other economic links continue to play a major role in the relationship – especially due to the financial impact of the pandemic – countries across Europe are becoming increasingly sceptical of Beijing’s intentions. In a new policy brief, Janka Oertel lays out the perceptions and priorities that will shape Europe’s approach to China in a world struggling to contend with the coronavirus. Based on case studies of Bulgaria, France, Italy, Poland, and Spain, it shows how EU member states are grappling with the inherent conflict between…
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Disorder from Chaos: Why Europeans fail to promote stability in the Sahel
. Hopes were high when French President Emmanuel Macron announced the creation of the Sahel Alliance at a G5 meeting in Nouakchott, Mauritania in July 2017. The new alliance’s goal was for France and Germany, along with other international partners, to play a more effective role in improving stability in the Sahel by bringing development concerns together with security and governance work. The activities of the Sahel Alliance since its formation demonstrate some of the wide-ranging ambitions for European and international policy in the region. But the Alliance has also revealed the difficulties facing efforts to coordinate ongoing work and make existing and future policies more effective. Confusion surrounding European…
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Neue Bündnisse, alte Gräben: Europäische Zusammenarbeit während der Coronakrise
Seit März 2020 wurde die europäische Zusammenarbeit – wie auch die Relevanz der EU-Institutionen – einer Reihe von Prüfungen unterzogen. Zunächst mussten sie die unmittelbare Krisenreaktion koordinieren, dann Hilfe für Mitgliedstaaten, die unverhältnismäßig stark vom Virus betroffen sind, bereitstellen und schließlich über eine finanzielle Lastenteilung zur Bewältigung der wirtschaftlichen Folgen von Covid-19 verhandeln. Aber war dies nur ein Intermezzo oder – zumindest in mancher Hinsicht – ein Wendepunkt für die Arbeitsweise der EU? In seinem neuen Policy Brief analysiert der ECFR-Experte Pawel Zerka die Auswirkungen der Coronakrise auf die Kooperationsmuster der Regierungen in den 27 EU-Mitgliedsstaaten. Des Weiteren untersucht Zerka welche Rollen die EU-Institutionen und die Hauptstädte in solchen Situationen…
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A return to Africa: Why North African states are looking south
European policymakers have generally looked at North Africa through a Mediterranean lens. But this vision of North Africa is outdated: North African countries are increasingly turning their attention towards the rest of their own continent. Europe needs to understand this trend as it shapes its relations with North Africa and with the continent as a whole. A new policy brief by ECFR senior policy fellow Anthony Dworkin offers a stock-take of the African strategies of Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, and Egypt. The North African turn towards Africa is driven by several factors: Some countries are engaged in an effort to win diplomatic support on significant questions of national interest: for Morocco…
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Health sovereignty: How to build a resilient European response to pandemics
The European Union has been a champion of the world of interconnections we live in – people, goods, information, and, of course, microbes flow across borders with ever-increasing speed and quantity. These flows create enormous benefits but, as the covid-19 pandemic demonstrates, they also create societal vulnerabilities and expose us to risk. States can limit these flows but only at enormous cost to their economies, their culture, and their people. In the face of these vulnerabilities, populations expect their governments to be able to protect them and their health. They want, in other words, their governments to retain health sovereignty. In a new policy brief, ECFR experts Jonathan Hackenbroich, Jeremy…
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Reform from crisis: How Tunisia can use covid-19 as an opportunity
Tunisia’s recent presidential and parliamentary elections, held in September and October 2019, were major milestones in its democratisation process. But the rise of anti-party figures and radical movements reminded Tunisia’s political elites – and European onlookers – that deep socio-economic challenges continue to destabilise the country’s fragile political system. Against this backdrop, covid-19 has exacerbated long-term challenges such as an economic crisis, social and regional inequality, inadequate healthcare, and intensifying political instability. This will test the capacity and unity of the ruling coalition in significant ways. But, critically, it also provides a moment of opportunity to press ahead with much-needed reforms. Reform from crisis: How Tunisia can use covid-19 as…
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Reviving the revolutionaries: How Trump’s maximum pressure is shifting Iran’s domestic politics
Iran’s actions regularly capture global attention – but there remains too little understanding in the West of the country’s internal politics, including how to influence decision-makers in its complex political ecosystem. In Europe, governments may have recently toughened their stance – as France, the UK, and Germany jointly did only last Friday – but their desire to negotiate with Iran remains. After the long-haul diplomacy that led to the nuclear deal in 2015, the Trump administration’s ‘maximum pressure’ campaign has pushed the mainstream of Iranian politics away from support for engaging the West. This new policy brief by Ellie Geranmayeh maps how power operates inside Iran and describes how the different factions that shape…
