The European Council on Foreign Relations

Sofia view: the end of New Europe?

Date: 31st January 2012 | Author: Dimitar Bechev,

Categories: Euro Crisis, Wider Europe, Sofia view, Reinventing Europe,

So Petr Nečas, the Czech Republic’s premier, has ultimately decided not to sign the Fiscal Compact aimed at tackling the festering Eurozone crisis. He quoted constitutional impediments, although everyone is mindful of the real problem: President Václav Klaus’ intransigent views on ceding powers to Brussels. (Remember those cliff-hanger days in November 2009 when the master of the Prague Castle was baulking whether to sign or not the Lisbon Treaty?) Now the Czechs are in the same cohort with the UK – keeping at an arm’s length from the new fiscal rules proposed by Frau Merkel. While Nečas left the door ajar (and it might well turn out that the Czech Republic ultimately joins the 25 signatories) Prague’s reluctance brings home, yet again, a point: the New Europe we got to know over the past decade is largely over.

It was the EU’s current malaise that dealt the fatal blow to New

Germany in Europe: A European game change?

Date: 31st January 2012 | Author: Ulrike Guérot,

Categories: Germany in Europe,

It is not easy to detect where the euro debate stands after coming back from a holiday in India. In fact the euro crisis was hardly mentioned in the The Hindu, one of the most important Indian newspapers.

However, I think there is a tangible game change happening this year. Still, we are faced with many problems; in particular the details of how to restructure the Greek debt, how to help Portugal which will need some 16 bln euro, and how to make the ESM work. But there seems to be a new decisiveness in the air and political will is back, especially in Germany. The governing coalition found a common approach and shows the willingness to save the euro. A recent example is the speech of Guido Westerwelle in Washington, where he defended the euro and the European project as if his life depended on it.

In Davos, the likes of David Cameron, Timothy Geithner or Christine Lagarde

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Reinventing Europe: Charles S. Maier

Date: 30th January 2012 | Author: Charles S. Maier,

Categories: Reinventing Europe,

As part of ECFR's 'Reinvention of Europe' project, we are running a series of responses from leading thinkers and academics to Mark Leonard's recent paper,'Four scenarios for the reinvention of Europe'. The paper outlined four possible routes towards solving Europe's current crisis, and argued that Europe's main challenge was to solve the acute euro crisis without exacerbating the chronic crisis of declining European power. In the fourth in this series of responses, we hear from Charles S. Maier of Harvard University.

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Mark Leonard’s diagnosis of the current European “crisis” is sadly persuasive. I am less certain about his possible solutions. More than a decade ago I described the two real if implicit parties in Europe as “globalist” and “territorialist” – those willing to go with globalisation and those seeking to resist. But the EU has in effect become the vehicle for

ECFR This Week: 27th January 2012

Date: 27th January 2012 | Author: Andreas Mullerleile,

Categories: ECFR this week ,

To start off with some good news, we’re pleased to say that we did rather well in the most comprehensive global ranking of think tanks. The “Global Go To Think Tank Index”, which examined 6545 think tanks, rated us as in the Top 10 in three categories: the best non-US think tanks; the world’s most innovative policy ideas and proposals (global); and the best use of the internet and social media in engaging the public (global). Many thanks to everyone involved, whether writing, reading, listening or responding to any of our work.

This week our prestigious ‘Reinventing Europe’ debate continued. Richard Rosecrance (Harvard University) argues that Greece and Spain are in fact essential for the eurozone as they keep the value of the currency at a competitive level. Brigid Laffan (University College Dublin) thinks that there is enough political will to save the euro and to develop a

Reinventing Europe: Brigid Laffan

Date: 26th January 2012 | Author: Brigid Laffan ,

Categories: Euro Crisis, Reinventing Europe,

As part of ECFR's 'Reinvention of Europe' project, we are running a series of responses from leading thinkers and academics to Mark Leonard's recent paper, 'Four scenarios for the reinvention of Europe'. The paper outlined four possible routes towards solving Europe's current crisis, and argued that Europe's main challenge was to solve the acute euro crisis without exacerbating the chronic crisis of declining European power. In the third in this series of responses, we hear from Brigid Laffan of University College Dublin:

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This essay by Mark Leonard is to be welcomed because it places the political challenges facing the EU centre stage. The emphasis on politics is an important antidote to a narrow focus on economics in much of the commentary. A new European Union is being configured, the nature of which will only become clearer over time as choices are made.

Two important

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