Out of Order: the Polish Constitutional Court’s challenge to the European Union
What steps can the EU take to defend its legal order and protect the authority of the CJEU?
Cohesion & Governance
12 Oct
THINKING BIG WITH Ivan Krastev and Mark Leonard on the Age of Unpeace
What do China’s mask diplomacy, America’s sanctions on Iran, Russia’s election interference, Belarus’s migration policy, struggles over Huawei, Covid-19 and Climate change have in common?
24 Sep
The Post-Merkel Era: Towards More or Less European Solidarity?
On this night at De Balie we will discuss Germany’s political future and the impact of the election result on European integration and solidarity
Lead time: How Germany should move on from Merkel | Episode 2 – China Policy
How should the next German government concretely shape its China policy, and its approach to the Indo-Pacific?
27 Sep
German elections debriefing: results are in, what’s next?
Which coalition is likely? Who are the winners and losers, and likely candidates for main political jobs?
Lead time: How Germany should move on from Merkel | Episode 1 – Climate Policy
Whoever wins the election, the next German government must approach climate action more systematically and in a more sustained fashion
14 Sep
Beyond Merkelism: What do Europeans expect from post-Merkel Germany?
What do European citizens expect from Germany’s next government, after 16 years of Angela Merkel? With little over a week to go until the elections, join a panel of pundits to analyse ECFR’s latest survey of attitudes of 16,000 citizens across 12 EU countries
Flash in the pan: Flooding in Germany and the politics of climate
Recent environmental disasters could sway the result of this month’s election – but no party has yet seized the moment
Europe’s invisible divides: How covid-19 is polarising European politics
Europe’s covid-19 experience has been a tale of two pandemics – and the differences in each story could haunt the continent for many years to come
Nordic discomfort: How Denmark, Sweden, and Finland could harm the European project
Too many Europeans are turning a blind eye to the domestic politics of Nordic states. But theirs is a trajectory that could affect the future of the EU.
Publications
Europe’s invisible divides: How covid-19 is polarising European politics
Europe’s covid-19 experience has been a tale of two pandemics – and the differences in each story could haunt the continent for many years to come
Ambiguous alliance: Neutrality, opt-outs, and European defence
The EU’s work on its Strategic Compass should include debates on the special status states’ future role in European defence
Europe’s green moment: How to meet the climate challenge
Member states are not divided into two diametrically opposed camps. This makes the implementation of the European Green Deal an intricate puzzle – yet achievable.
The crisis that made the European Union: European cohesion in the age of covid
The pandemic poses a threat to European cohesion by increasing economic divides and undermining trust in the EU and national governments
Crisis presidency: How Portuguese leadership can guide the EU into the post-covid era
The Portuguese EU presidency should handle issues in line with European voters’ perceptions of the new reality created by the coronavirus
The Brexit parenthesis: Three ways the pandemic is changing UK politics
The shock of covid-19 in Britain may end the culture-wars politics set off by the Brexit referendum
The big engine that might: How France and Germany can build a geopolitical Europe
The EU Coalition Explorer survey reveals the importance of Germany and France within the EU, and the impact they can have when they cooperate with each other
In sickness and in health: European cooperation during the coronavirus crisis
ECFR research into how EU member states and institutions worked together at the height of covid-19 confirms Germany was the bloc’s undisputed crisis leader
Untapped potential: How new alliances can strengthen the EU
Fragmentation in the EU makes it increasingly difficult for member states to build coalitions. The EU Coalition Explorer reveals potential new groupings.
What Europeans really feel: The battle for the political system
Support for membership of the European Union is currently high, but so too is pessimism about the future of the European project
Articles
Flash in the pan: Flooding in Germany and the politics of climate
Recent environmental disasters could sway the result of this month’s election – but no party has yet seized the moment
Nordic discomfort: How Denmark, Sweden, and Finland could harm the European project
Too many Europeans are turning a blind eye to the domestic politics of Nordic states. But theirs is a trajectory that could affect the future of the EU.
Germany’s Green Velvet Revolution?
While Germany’s long-ruling centre-right parties continue to offer more of the same, the Greens have recently emerged as a serious contender in the run-up to September’s federal elections
Why should anyone care? Foreign policy and public opinion
There are at least six reasons why public opinion on foreign policy should matter more today than it did in the past
Under cover of Covid, Poland is stifling free media – and all Europe should be worried
A planned ‘coronavirus tax’ on revenues and attacks on foreign-owned media threaten to cut away democracy piece by piece
Election 2021: How Germany could vote Green but keep the status quo
This year’s election could catapult the Greens to power – but it may not be enough to bring about the reforms Germany needs
Calling it quits: How Europe should build on Fidesz’s exit from the EPP
The European People’s Party tolerated Fidesz for far too long. Its de facto expulsion should be a turning point in the relationship between the EU and Orbán’s Hungary
Germany at the helm: How Berlin kept Europe together in 2020
Germany managed to keep Europe together in a time of severe crisis. The country led diplomatic efforts to find an agreement on the EU’s seven-year budget and its recovery fund.
The long year: Top foreign policy trends for 2021
Mark Leonard and Jeremy Shapiro predict ten bright and bold policy projections for the year to come
After Merkel: Why Germany must end its inertia on defence and security
Angela Merkel has long resisted updating German defence policy for today’s challenges. Her successor will not be able to avoid the challenge forever
Specials
EU Cohesion Monitor
European cohesion is bouncing back after crisis years. The EU Cohesion Monitor presents new insights on cohesion as an underestimated source of strength and collective action in the EU.
EU Coalition Explorer
The Coalition Explorer illustrates the expert opinions of more than 800 respondents who work on European policy and creates a visual understanding of the views held by Europe’s professional political class
European Solidarity Tracker
The European Solidarity Tracker collects and displays instances of pan-European solidarity throughout the coronavirus crisis
The 2019 European election: How anti-Europeans plan to wreck Europe and what can be done to stop it
Summary With anti-Europeans on their way to winning more than one-third of seats in the next European Parliament, the stakes in the May 2019 election…
EU Cohesion Monitor 2019
European cohesion is bouncing back after crisis years. The EU Cohesion Monitor presents new insights on cohesion as an underestimated source of strength and collective action in the EU.
The future shape of Europe: How the EU can bend without breaking
A critical mass of countries agree on the need for more flexible cooperation, but what could it look like?
Connectivity wars
This essay introduces “Connectivity Wars“, an essay collection on why migration, finance and trade are the geo-economic battlegrounds of the future
Britain in Europe Renegotiation Scorecard
The scorecard assesses the support that components of the reform agenda enjoy in Europe’s capitals.
Podcasts
Out of Order: the Polish Constitutional Court’s challenge to the European Union
What steps can the EU take to defend its legal order and protect the authority of the CJEU?
Lead time: How Germany should move on from Merkel | Episode 2 – China Policy
How should the next German government concretely shape its China policy, and its approach to the Indo-Pacific?
Lead time: How Germany should move on from Merkel | Episode 1 – Climate Policy
Whoever wins the election, the next German government must approach climate action more systematically and in a more sustained fashion
A foreign policy for a Green Germany
How would a (partially) Green government affect German foreign policy?
Towards stability: A new concert of powers
Could a “concert of powers” be the solution for the increasing power competition between the US and China and the current crisis of democracy?
One crisis, many responses: Fighting the first wave of the pandemic
Why did the approaches to handling the coronavirus differ so much even in all the countries around the globe?
A fair, green and digital recovery – brought to you by Portugal
How can the Portuguese presidency strengthen European strategic autonomy?
The coronavirus world order
How can we explain the current crisis of the liberal international order?
An interview with Anne Applebaum and José Ignacio Torreblanca
Head of ECFR’s Madrid Office, Jose Ignacio Torreblanca talks to the American historian, a Pulitzer Prize winner for Gulag, and expert on authoritarian populism about…
Where there’s a will, there’s a way: France, Germany and EU coalition building
In this week’s episode, Mark Leonard presents the new and third edition of ECFR´s Coalition explorer, which also included special questions regarding the impact of…
In the media
A further exit of a member state after Brexit would be a disaster, but even more serious is a disintegration of the European Union from within
Above all, the new government in Berlin must lead the fight against the two biggest threats the EU will face in the near future: The rule of law and the further dismantling of democracy
Angela Merkel has done a lot right – but merely managing her legacy will not be enough, writes Jana Puglierin in her op-ed
The battle we have now is basically about will the EU allow this to happen, that populist, autocratic governments disregard the European standards & laws, leading to an erosion of the EU foundations
Poland and some other member states have repeatedly clashed with the EU over the rule of law, media freedom and minority rights, explains Piotr Buras
What is at stake is not Polexit, but the credibility and legitimacy of EU law and its key defender – the CJEU
In his op-ed for Balkan Insight, Piotr Buras argues Polexit is not really the issue after the verdict of Poland’s constitutional court questioning the primacy of EU law
It is part of the PiS party’s strategy to massively polarise the political landscape. The EU is suitable as a scapegoat and as an opponent that can be instrumentalised in the domestic debate