The European Council on Foreign Relations

ECFR this week: 22th June

Date: 22nd June 2012  |  Author: Nicholas Walton,

Categories: ECFR this week ,
Tags: defense, drones, egypt, euro crisis, g20

This week saw the publication of an ECFR paper that argues that dealing with the euro crisis is distracting the EU from a series of potential crises on Europe’s southern flank that could seriously threaten our interests. In ‘The dangers of distraction: EU crisis management beyond the euro’ Richard Gowan warns that we must pay more attention to what is happening in places like Syria, Libya, Mali, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen, or pay the longer term price. Among other things, Richard suggests building up partnerships with the UN and regional groupings as a cost-effective way of dealing with these crises with the limited resources currently at our disposal.

Elsewhere:

• Nick Witney argued forcefully that ‘Europe must not accept Egypt’s military coup’, explaining that the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces have used the election to - in effect - stage a coup d’etat. Nick suggests that Europe's response to this counter revolution is a test of whether it has really absorbed the lessons of the Arab Spring.
• In ‘Three elements for a European recovery strategy’ Sebastian Dullien argues that marginal measures will not create growth, and that a fundamental change is needed, involving an end to extreme austerity, more public investment and a reform of the financial system.
• Ulrike Guerot argues that a report by 10 foreign ministers calling for a more federal Europe is a positive sign in the current EU debate. The obstacle seems to be France which is not yet ready to sign up to deep institutional EU reforms.
• Mark Leonard’s latest piece for the Reuters blog looks at Europe’s external relationships, in particular through the lens of the recent G20 meeting in Mexico: ‘Europe will leave G20 with a unilateral future’. Mark argues that Europeans are starting to lose their religion on multilateralism and global governance now they are in less of a position to lecture others on how they should be running their affairs.
• In 'Obama’s Drone Attacks: How the EU Should Respond' Anthony Dworkin argues that   European leaders need to press the US to establish credible international standards to govern the use of drone strikes.
• Dimitar Bechev began his latest ‘Sofia View’ blog post with the question of where EU enlargement is heading, following a conference with a strong flavour of the Western Balkans and Turkey. Dimitar is currently working on an ECFR paper examining questions of enlargement and the Western Balkans in the context of the euro crisis.