Economic arm-twisting is on the rise. Europe must learn how to resist it
Protectionism is not the answer. European countries must build public support for strategic openness.
Experts & Staff
Pawel Zerka
Policy Fellow
Areas of expertise
Latin America, EU affairs, international trade, Poland in the EU
Languages
English, French, Spanish and Polish
Biography
Pawel Zerka is a policy fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations.
He contributes to ECFR’s Re:shape Global Europe project, which seeks to develop new strategies for Europeans to understand and engage with the changing international order. Pawel is also engaged in the analysis of the European public opinion as part of ECFR’s Unlock Europe’s Majority initiative and in discussions about Europe’s economic statecraft. He also works on Polish and European foreign policy. Based at ECFR’s Paris office, he has been part of the team since August 2017.
Previously, Zerka worked as expert and head of programmes at two leading Polish think tanks, demosEUROPA-Centre for European Strategy and WiseEuropa. Zerka holds a PhD in economics and a master’s degree in international relations from the Warsaw School of Economics, having also studied at SciencesPo Bordeaux and Universidad de Buenos Aires.
France’s presidential election: How the far-right could win
Emmanuel Macron shook French politics from top to bottom. To show he did not bring the house down, he will quickly need to defend his record and reach out to lost voters.
How migration became a weapon: the Belarus-Polish border crisis
What is coercive engineered migration? And what would be the best way for the EU to respond to Minsk’s tactics?
How half-hearted sanctions put the future of Belarus at risk
The EU is currently assembling its fifth package of sanctions on Belarus. Here is what European governments and the Belarusian opposition should draw from how things have gone so far.
The strike back against economic blackmail
In what circumstances should an Anti-Coercion Tool be triggered? What kind of countermeasures could protect Europe, keep markets open and support a functional global trade order?
Measured response: How to design a European instrument against economic coercion
The anti-coercion instrument needs to enable countermeasures that are both effective and credible; if it does not, this could carry more risks than benefits
23 Jun
Anti-Coercion Instrument: How the EU can counter sanctions, boycotts and economic blackmailing
This event is the second webinar in a two-part series on current developments in the global use of economic coercion
17 Jun
Trapped in an age of economic coercion – How can the EU effectively navigate it?
This event is the first webinar in a two-part series on current developments in the global use of economic coercion
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
Friends like these: How foreign policy could derail an alliance of Europe’s populist right
A populist alliance in the European Parliament may prove unworkable because of the parties’ diverging global outlooks
Publications
Measured response: How to design a European instrument against economic coercion
The anti-coercion instrument needs to enable countermeasures that are both effective and credible; if it does not, this could carry more risks than benefits
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
The transformative five: A new role for the frugal states after the EU recovery deal
The reputation of Austria, Denmark, Finland, the Netherlands, and Sweden as ‘frugal states’ does not reflect public sentiment in these countries
Defending Europe’s Economic Sovereignty: new ways to resist economic coercion
The EU should move quickly to consider and adopt a suite of tools to protect and enhance European sovereignty in the geo-economic sphere
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
Together in trauma: Europeans and the world after covid-19
A new survey shows that, after the onset of the covid-19 crisis, there has been a rise in public support for unified EU action to tackle global threats
How to govern a fragmented EU: What Europeans said at the ballot box
The results of the European election confront EU leaders with a considerable challenge: navigating a new, more fragmented, and polarised political environment
Keeping Europe safe after Brexit
The context Now is not the moment for either the European Union or the United Kingdom to risk allowing the political tensions around Brexit to…
Articles
Economic arm-twisting is on the rise. Europe must learn how to resist it
Protectionism is not the answer. European countries must build public support for strategic openness.
France’s presidential election: How the far-right could win
Emmanuel Macron shook French politics from top to bottom. To show he did not bring the house down, he will quickly need to defend his record and reach out to lost voters.
How half-hearted sanctions put the future of Belarus at risk
The EU is currently assembling its fifth package of sanctions on Belarus. Here is what European governments and the Belarusian opposition should draw from how things have gone so far.
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
Friends like these: How foreign policy could derail an alliance of Europe’s populist right
A populist alliance in the European Parliament may prove unworkable because of the parties’ diverging global outlooks
Poland’s misplaced American dreams
Much of the world is glad to move on from Trump – but Poles may still be hankering after earlier times
10 Venezuelan lessons for the Belarusian opposition
2021 will be a crucial year for the future of Belarus; in Venezuela, the future looks bleak. The Belarusian protesters can look and learn from the experience of the Venezuelan opposition.
Why populism in Europe will survive Trump’s defeat
There are three reasons European populists may still thrive in the post-Trump era
The Swede spot: Why Stockholm needs flexible coalitions
Sweden needs to stay flexible – and avoid getting stuck in one coalition – if it wants to use its power in the EU to the fullest
United in distrust: How France and Poland can repair their broken relations
The French and Polish governments are at loggerheads over questions of values and foreign policy. But each side can take steps to renew relations.
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…
The nightmare of the dark: The security fears that keep Europeans awake at night
Great power competition is increasingly shaping Europeans’ security environment, while other security threats are also on the rise, from terrorism and cyber attacks to climate change
Podcasts
How migration became a weapon: the Belarus-Polish border crisis
What is coercive engineered migration? And what would be the best way for the EU to respond to Minsk’s tactics?
The strike back against economic blackmail
In what circumstances should an Anti-Coercion Tool be triggered? What kind of countermeasures could protect Europe, keep markets open and support a functional global trade order?
Can the Frugals transform the EU?
The geopolitical grouping known as the “frugal four” — Austria, Denmark, Sweden and the Netherlands — has emerged as a key power centre in this year’s negotiations over the EU’s next budget and the covid-19 recovery fund. Does “frugality” actually reflect the public sentiment in those countries?
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…
Corona Angst – How the virus puts the European Project and globalisation at risk
Recently declared a global pandemic, it is undeniable that the coronavirus will be a global political, social, financial and economic crisis – requiring actions that…
You better bring a book – the start of the EU’s lengthy budget talks
Negotiations over the Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF) for 2021 – 2027 just have started. But as tensions and divergences between the EU member states are…
Key takeaways from the European elections 2019
This week, Ulrike Franke is filling in for the regular host Mark Leonard to discuss the stories behind the media headlines in the aftermath of…
Ce que veulent les citoyens européens : un bilan des élections européennes
Podcast de notre BCM du 28 mai « Ce que veulent les citoyens européens : un bilan des élections européennes » en présence…
EU Elections: Could anti-Europe parties wreck the EU from within?
Mark Leonard speaks with Susi Dennison, director of ECFR’s European Power programme, and Pawel Zerka, programme coordinator for European Power, about the upcoming European Parliament…
In the media
Pawel Zerka explique dans La Presse la crise qui se déroule à la frontière entre la Pologne et le Belarus
Pawel Zerka is quoted by L’Express about the project of building a wall between Poland and Belarus
Pawel Zerka is quoted in Le Monde about Loukachenko
Jonathan Hackenbroich and Pawel Zerka argue in an op-ed in The New Statesman that European countries must build public support for strategic openness
Alexander Lukashenko created an artificial route to Europe to achieve political goals
Pawel Zerka underlines that the problem in the Belarus-Poland border crisis is not the migrants, but Lukashenko