European Union

The European Commission’s hydrogen industrial strategy and COVID-19

By Mary-Rose de Valladares

As COVID-19 enveloped Europe and the Americas, Ursula van der Leyen declared clean hydrogen energy “a pillar” of the European Union (EU)’s new industrial strategy. While COVID-19 will likely have significant effects on hydrogen’s success in Europe, it has nevertheless become a top EC energy priority.

The US is defending Europe by blocking Putin’s pipeline

By Diane Francis

Berlin has slammed US plans to impose harsh new sanctions on Vladimir Putin's Nord Stream 2 pipeline, but critics see the project as a direct threat to European security and energy independence.

Top European digital official: US and EU must make better use of their shared values and history

By Larry Luxner

Europe’s powerful competition and digital chief Margrethe Vestager is calling for better relations between the United States and the European Union, at a time when economic chaos triggered by the worsening coronavirus pandemic threatens recovery on both sides of the Atlantic.

How can Portugal’s Port of Sines play a bigger role in assuring energy security in the European Union?

By Dr. Ricardo Silvestre

The European Union (EU) currently relies on a small number of external suppliers to meet its energy needs. To minimize reliance on foreign gas imports, the EU should increase liquefied natural gas (LNG) imports to Europe, expand gas storage capacity, and further develop energy distribution mechanisms across Member States. As a potential alternative energy hub, Sines, Portugal is in an excellent position to become an important continental European LNG entrance point as well as a key gas distribution and bunkering center. If the pieces fall into place, Sines, and Portugal writ large, may become key guarantors of European energy security.

The European Union and the search for digital sovereignty: Building “Fortress Europe” or preparing for a new world?

By Frances Burwell, Kenneth Propp

However the EU redefines sovereignty post-COVID-19—including technological or digital sovereignty—the impact will not be limited to Europe and European companies.

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 […]

The European approach on the arms embargo on Iran

By Michel Duclos

On the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran, the European approach has been, to a large extent, inspired by legal concerns and a commitment to a rules-based international order.

The US and Europe have addressed COVID unemployment in divergent ways: The differences are revealing.

By Hung Tran

The coronavirus pandemic has inflicted similar economic devastation around the world, but the United States and Europe have sought to minimize the impact of COVID-related unemployment in divergent ways. Understanding the differences in these responses is critical to grasping the likely long-term impact of this crisis on the transatlantic economy.