European Union

The Economic and Political Decline of France

By Mathieu von Rohr, Spiegel

EU Foreign Policy Needs a Reset

By Ulrich Speck

EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton is a skilled negotiator; the recent Serbia-Kosovo breakthrough will probably secure her a place in the history books. It is rather unlikely, though, that 2009 – the year EU leaders chose Ashton as High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy – will be remembered by […]

Connecting the Baltic States to Europe’s Gas Market

By Matthew Bryza and Emmet Tuohy

More than two decades after the end of the Soviet occupation, and eight years after they joined NATO and the European Union, the Baltic republics remain disintegrated from the rest of Europe in one crucial way:  their natural gas infrastructure isolates them into “energy islands.”  But, for the first time in their histories, Estonia, Latvia, […]

Merkel: German Military Unlikely to Become Part of European Force

By Spiegel

From Spiegel:  Excerpt from interview of German Chancellor Angela Merkel by Spiegel.

EU’s Foreign Policy of the Willing

By Vivien Pertusot

The EU’s foreign policy is in disarray after clear disagreements on the lifting of the arms embargo on Syria, many say. Is it really? This reading of events is skewed, because it assumes that every EU foreign policy action requires a consensus and an active participation of each member state. But this has seldom been the […]

Influencing the World or Organizing Europe?

By Julian Lindley-French

As I was about to board a plane at Oslo Airport yesterday I found myself confronted by a dilemma. Do I read the latest Dan Brown novel, based at it is on Dante Alighieri’s fourteenth century classic “The Inferno,” or do I read the new “Towards a European Global Strategy,” Europe’s eternal infernal? Push came to […]

NATO Rejects Direct Arctic Presence

By Gerard O'Dwyer, Defense News

From Gerard O’Dwyer, Defense News:  Norway’s ambition of persuading NATO to establish a strong direct military presence in the Arctic High North — and as a strategic counterweight to Russia’s intensifying rearming programs in the region — suffered a setback after the leader of NATO said the alliance has no plans to expand its role […]

EU Approves Sending Border Security Advisors to Libya

By Adrian Croft, Reuters

From Adrian Croft, Reuters:  European Union governments approved a mission on Wednesday to help Libya improve its border security in response to concerns that Islamist militants and weapons move freely across the North African country’s frontier.

Germany’s Botched Drone Policy

By Judy Dempsey, Strategic Europe

From Judy Dempsey, Strategic Europe: [A] botched and expensive project to produce a drone system for the Bundeswehr could be [Defense Minister Thomas] de Maizière’s undoing.