From Iran to Ukraine: Successes and Failures of Europe’s Foreign Policy in 2013

Based on the findings of the 2014 European Foreign Policy Scorecard, this event will discuss how Europe has managed (or not) to achieve its objectives when dealing with the rest of the world and how it can better achieve common goals in 2014. 

Guests

Helga Schmid, Deputy Secretary General, EEAS

Mark Leonard, Director, ECFR

Prof Maurice Fraser, Head of the European Institute, LSE

 

Chaired by

Steven Erlanger, London bureau chief, The New York Times

2013 saw some major European diplomatic successes. These include the historic Kosovo-Serbia deal, which Baroness Ashton brokered in April, and the interim deal between the E3+3 and Iran on nuclear issues which represented real progress for the European states’ decade long policy of diplomacy towards Iran. But against the backdrop of these successes, European policies are being challenged in both the southern and eastern neighbourhood – in particular by Ukraine and the ongoing regional conflict centred on Syria.

Based on the findings of the 2014 European Foreign Policy Scorecard, this event will discuss how Europe has managed (or not) to achieve its objectives when dealing with the rest of the world and how it can better achieve common goals in 2014. The discussion will also take in the role of the UK as an independent actor in the EU’s foreign policy.

Helga Schmid is Deputy Secretary General of the EEAS where she has been closely involved in the Iran dossier. Previously she has worked as political adviser to German Foreign Ministers Klaus Kinkel (1994-98) and Joschka Fischer (1998-2000).

Mark Leonard is co-Founder and Director of ECFR. He is closely involved in the European Foreign Policy Scorecard project, which provides a systematic annual assessment of Europe’s performance in dealing with the rest of the world. The 2014 edition is available here.

Maurice Fraser is the Head of the European Institute at the LSE. He is Associate Fellow (Europe) at Chatham House. He was previously Special Adviser to Foreign Secretaries Douglas Hurd, John Major and Sir Geoffrey Howe.

Steven Erlanger is the New York Times’s London bureau chief. Previously Steven was the New York Times’s bureau chief in Bangkok, Moscow, Prague, Berlin, Jerusalem and Paris.

This event is part of ‘The Europe Question: perspectives from the UK’ initiative which aims to bridge the evident gap in understanding and mutual distrust between the UK, its European partners and the EU institutions in Brussels, through a sober and systematic examination of the most fundamental issues surrounding European integration and the UK's place within the European project. For more information, visit www.ecfr.eu/europequestion