Research

Set a date for enlargement now

Set a date for enlargement now

Heather Grabbe
01 December 2000
The EU has an accession process, but still needs an enlargement strategy. The European Commission deserves credit for keeping the accession negotiations going, but we are reaching the limits of what the EU institutions can achieve.
Institutions

The unholiest of alliances

01 December 2000
Yes, there really are some people who believe in a federal super-state. They want the EU to evolve into something like the USA, with a strong central government responsible to the European Parliament.
The "open method of co-ordination"

The "open method of co-ordination": Innovation or talking shop?

Kirsty Hughes
01 December 2000
At the 'dot.com' Summit AT Lisbon in March 2000, the EU set itself the strategic goal of creating full employment in a competitive and inclusive knowledge-based economy.
Europe must learn to work with Bush

Europe must learn to work with Bush

Steven Everts
01 December 2000
Europeans will react with a mixture of scepticism and hope to George W. Bush’s victory in this year’s cliffhanger elections. The vast majority of European policy-makers expect US diplomacy to become somewhat more adversarial in style and Eurosceptic in substance.
Bulletin issue 21

Issue 21 - 2001

Andrew Cottey, Steven Everts, Alasdair Murray
24 November 2000
Opening the US defence market

Opening the US defence market

Alex Ashourne
03 November 2000
Many European defence companies aspire to gain access to the US defence market. America has the largest defence budget in the world – some $280 billion, or 3.3 per cent of GDP in 2000 – and is the source of much of the world's most advanced defence technology.
How flexible should Europe be?

How flexible should Europe be?

Ben Hall
06 October 2000
A European Union (EU) of 26 or more member-states will certainly be far more diverse – in economic, social, cultural and political terms – than the current one. Few people would argue that a monolithic, homogenous Union is what Europe needs.
European defence: The next steps

European defence: The next steps

Charles Grant, Christoph Bertram, François Heisbourg
02 October 2000
Last year, the Kosovo air war highlighted the impotence of Europe's armed forces.The Americans provided more than three-quarters of the bombs dropped, and most of the advanced communications equipment.
Europe needs an avant-garde, but...

Europe needs an avant-garde, but...

Jacques Delors
02 October 2000
I have always found talk about a European constitution unhelpful, for it is such an ambiguous term. My preferred formula is that Europe should be a "federation of nation states". What ties states together is a treaty.
Institutions

A new institutional vision

02 October 2000
As the EU prepares to become a club of 30-plus countries, the immense task of reforming its institutions - so that they can work effectivelyand gain some democratic credibility - will be unending.
Bulletin issue 14

Issue 14 - 2000

Charles Grant, Christoph Bertram, François Heisbourg, Jacques Delors
29 September 2000
The EU and world trade

The EU and world trade

Richard Cunningham, Peter Lichtenbaum, Julie Wolf
08 September 2000
The paradox of trade policy is that, at a time when political leaders in most parts of the world have accepted the intellectual case for trade liberalisation more thoroughly than ever before, public opposition to free trade is on the rise.
EU2010

EU2010: An optimistic view of the future

01 September 2000
The European Union's principal task in the first decades of the 21st century is to spread peace, stability, security and prosperity to the entire European continent. The chief mechanism for achieving this end is the enlargement of the Union.
Doing less to do more

Doing less to do more: A new focus for the EU

Nick Clegg
01 September 2000
There is a commonly held misconception that the design of constitutions and governments is shaped by logic. It is often forgotten that accident, coincidence and personalities play as great a role in the formation of our political landscape as do the underlying forces of reason or common sense.
Europe's new political flexibility

Europe's new political flexibility

Steven Everts
01 August 2000
First Joschka Fischer and then Jacques Chirac have sought to frame the terms of the debate on the future of the EU. Mr Fischer's "centre of gravity" and Mr Chirac's "pioneer group" are the subject of earnest discussion in think-tanks, foreign ministries and newspaper columns.
Reforming the euro club

Reforming the euro club

Alasdair Murray
01 August 2000
And so farewell the euro-11. In future, the adhoc group of eurozone finance ministers will be known as the Euro Group, its powers beefed up along the lines dictated by the French government.
The EU and world trade

The EU and world trade

Julie Wolf
01 August 2000
The collapse of the Seattle meeting of the World Trade Organisation in December 1999 was a blow to the EU, which had first proposed the idea of a "millennium round" of trade liberalisation.
Bulletin issue 13

Issue 13 - 2000

Steven Everts, Alasdair Murray, Julie Wolf
28 July 2000
Tackling fraud and mismanagement in the EU

Tackling fraud and mismanagement in the EU

Stephen Grey
02 June 2000
The European Union's political leaders have great ambitions for the years ahead: a successful economic and monetary union, a coherent and effective foreign policy, and the accession of up to 12 new member-states.
Beware the strong euro

Beware the strong euro

Alasdair Murray
01 June 2000
The claim may seem perverse, when the euro has barely crawled off its record lows, but there is a good case for saying that America rather than Euroland faces a looming currency crisis.

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