Research

What Turkey’s crisis means for the EU

What Turkey’s crisis means for the EU

Katinka Barysch
03 May 2007
Turkey has aborted its presidential election and called for an early parliamentary one. The army, it appears, is still on stand-by. Prime Minister Erdogan accused the country’s highest court of having fired “a bullet at democracy” by declaring the first round of voting on his presidential candidate, Abdullah Gul, invalid.
The EU and Arab reform

The EU and Arab reform

Charles Grant, Tomas Valsek
27 April 2007
The Arab Reform Initiative held its annual conference in Amman, Jordan, on 18th April. Founded in 2005, ARI is a consortium of a dozen research centres that advocate peaceful and gradual political, economic and social reform in the region. A few non-Arab think-tanks are also involved, including the Centre for European Reform, but it is very much led and managed by Arab research centres. The CER is part of ARI because it believes that ARI offers an excellent opportunity to encourage reform in a region that is deeply suspicious of outside influence.
Globalisation: business versus politics?

Globalisation: Business versus politics?

Katinka Barysch
20 April 2007
The CER and Accenture brought together a group of business people, journalists and policy analysts today, to discuss what the world may look like in 2020. What struck me is that there is not one debate about globalisation but several. And they hardly touch.
The EU, the US and Taiwan

The EU, the US and Taiwan

16 April 2007
Taiwanese domestic politics is nasty and messy. The two main political forces – the KMT, which believes in ‘one China’, and the DPP, which leans towards an independent Taiwan – hate each other with venom that is unmatched in most other functioning democracies.
The EU and the fight against organised crime

The EU and the fight against organised crime

Hugo Brady
06 April 2007
The EU needs to tackle a new threat: international organised crime. Europe's criminal underworld is taking advantage of new opportunities to commit crime that come with the increasing mobility of people, goods and services across national boundaries.
Britain and the EU: a crisis looms file thumbnail

Britain and the EU: a crisis looms

02 April 2007
British politicians are too complacent about Germany’s plan to salvage large parts of the EU constitutional treaty. They assume that other countries will reject the German presidency’s scheme, so sparing Britain from isolation. Indeed, there is now a consensus that stretches from UK treasury officials to Conservative leaders to The...
We are all Nordic now, or are we?

We are all Nordic now, or are we?

Katinka Barysch
02 April 2007
The EU drew up its Lisbon reform agenda in 2000 with the thinly disguised goal of catching up with the US. But the idea that Europe should strive to adopt ‘Anglo-Saxon’ capitalism is abhorrent to those who cherish Europe’s more extensive welfare states.
Ukraine’s real problem

Ukraine’s real problem

Tomas Valasek
02 April 2007
A marriage of convenience is probably too charitable a description of the relationship between Ukraine’s president, Viktor Yushchenko, and its prime minister, Viktor Yanukovich.
The view from 2027

The view from 2027

22 March 2007
Given how much respect and esteem most Europeans feel for the EU today, one can easily forget that when it celebrated its 50th birthday, in 2007, it was widely disliked and mistrusted.
In defence of missile defences?

In defence of missile defences?

Tomas Valasek
14 March 2007
For those spoiling for another good transatlantic fight, the headlines from last week’s EU summit must have come as manna from heaven.
What is wrong with Lisbon?

What is wrong with Lisbon?

Aurore Wanlin
09 March 2007
The Lisbon agenda embodies a paradox. Progress made by the member-states has been slow and patchy. The German presidency in the first half of 2007 is playing down Lisbon, fearing that the process has been discredited by the EU’s failure to meet its targets. Commentators often cite Lisbon as an example of the mismatch between the EU’s grand ambitions and lack of delivery.Aurore Wanlin was a research fellow at the CER (2004-2007).
The future of the single market

The future of the single market

Katinka Barysch
02 March 2007
The EU puts out a lot of reports, studies, evaluations and announcements. So far this month, the Commission has released around 80 major documents. Many of them are too specialised, too long or simply too dull to attract wider interest.
What's happening to Airbus?

What's happening to Airbus?

Simon Tilford
23 February 2007
Top of the agenda when Jacques Chirac meets Angela Merkel today in Berlin will be the crisis at Airbus. The European aircraft manufacturer has been forced to suspend a restructuring programme following inferference from both the French and German governments.
We need a new pro-Europeanism thumbnail

We need a new pro-Europeanism

09 February 2007
“We are not the first who meaning the best have incurred the worst”, is a line from tragic heroine Cordelia in Shakespeare’s King Lear. But it could apply equally well to the architects of the EU’s failed constitutional treaty, also a tragic but unfinished saga.
The Lisbon scorecard VII: Will globalistion leave Europe stranded?

The Lisbon scorecard VII: Will globalistion leave Europe stranded?

Simon Tilford, Katinka Barysch, Aurore Wanlin
01 February 2007
Globalisation and the rapid integration of China and India into the international economy present huge opportunities for the European Union.
Time to shake up the European Council

Time to shake up the European Council

David Harrison
01 February 2007
The European Council, the EU’s supreme political authority, is malfunctioning. Europe’s most powerful leaders meet four times a year in the Council to review the EU’s work and and give political direction to the Commission, Parliament and Council of Ministers.
French candidates miss the point on globalisation

French candidates miss the point on globalisation

Patrick Artus, Elie Cohen and Jean Pisani-Ferry
01 February 2007
The debate in the French presidential election has become dangerously protectionist. In the past, the EU’s commitment to free trade has prevented French politicians from advocating naked protectionism.
Schengen should go west as well as east

Schengen should go west as well as east

01 February 2007
EU governments spent last year arguing over the extension of Europe’s passport-free travel zone – the so-called Schengen area – to the countries that joined in 2004.
Bulletin issue 52

Issue 52 - 2007

Hugo Brady, David Harrison, Patrick Artus, Elie Cohen, Jean Pisani-Ferry
26 January 2007