2011 was supposed to be the year in which the EU strengthened its approach to China following top-level deliberations on Europe’s external partnerships in 2010. But Europe’s crisis turned into China’s opportunity.

The EU achieved an impressive degree of unity based on an overriding interest in developing its co-operation with Russia. But the return of Vladimir Putin as president ended a period of wishful thinking that had underwritten much of the EU’s engagement with Russia.

In 2011 US “leadership from behind” in Libya may have created a new model for co-operation with the EU in its neighbourhood but also revealed serious shortcomings in European capabilities that will only get worse as member states cut their defence budgets.

2011 was a mixed year for the EU in the Wider Europe: there was some progress on enlargement in the Western Balkans but it was another lost year for the EU and Turkey and there were few results in relations with the Eastern Partnership countries.

The Arab Awakening took everyone by surprise. EU member states have so far failed to deliver much of the “money, markets, mobility” it promised and European leaders have not yet developed a new long-term approach to their southern neighbours.

Europeans secured a legally binding deal on reducing carbon emissions, achieved results in multilateral institutions and helped stabilise highly vulnerable states – but these qualified successes were inevitably overshadowed by attempts to stabilise the eurozone.