Program: Future Europe Initiative

Don’t count on a White House Kosovo-Serbia breakthrough

By Dimitar Bechev

Setting expectations high would be ill-advised. For one, Vučić has no incentive to rush with recognizing Kosovo. Prishtina, meanwhile, will view the removal of tariffs on Serbia as having done its share, and will seek concessions. Europeans and Americans should be working side by side, pooling their leverage to move forward normalization. But sadly, this is less and less the case recently.

The EU is a more powerful partner on China than the US might think

By Julia Friedlander

Across a wide range of disciplines, the EU’s technocratic institutions repeatedly serve a force-multiplier for US priorities and can help forge the common transatlantic policies necessary to protect US and EU economic and security interests in the face of a more assertive China.

European Leadership and the Corona Crisis: Geopolitical Effects on Northern Europe

On June 15, 2020, the Atlantic Council Northern Europe Office in cooperation with the Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung (KAS) Nordic Office, organized a seminar on the topic of ”European Leadership and the Corona Crisis: Geopolitical Effects on Northern Europe”. The public seminar was attended by experts from all around Europe, representing parliaments, governmental institutions, political parties, think-tanks and […]

In Central Europe, a nationalist bullet dodged

By Daniel Fried

Many in the region expected the 100th anniversary of Trianon to be a blow up. It could be yet. But around the actual anniversary, it was a dog that did not bark: the significance was in what wasn’t said, in nationalist pandering avoided and confrontation dodged, and positive gestures recognized.

Data flows across the Channel: The emerging UK-EU digital trade relationship

By Kenneth Propp

If the United Kingdom can navigate a way forward on data transfers with both its ex-masters in Brussels and its ally in Washington, its success might ultimately yield benefits beyond these two bilateral trade contexts.

Italian, Spanish diplomats stress EU solidarity in wake of COVID-19 economic response

By Larry Luxner

Top officials from Italy and Spain—the two European Union member states hit hardest by the coronavirus pandemic—praised the EU’s May 27 announcement of a €750 billion ($826.5 billion) recovery program to rescue the bloc from its worst economic crisis in its history.

Evolving through crisis: European leadership in the light of COVID-19

By Elin Schiffer

The Atlantic Council's Northern Europe office convened a seminar on lessons learned from the early phases of the pandemic for European and transatlantic leadership.