French EU presidency will focus on strategic autonomy

2021 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Minimum Wage ◽  
Nuclear Energy ◽  
Domestic Politics ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Strategic Autonomy ◽  
The Eu

Significance Macron's priorities will include strengthening EU autonomy in areas such as defence and digital security, promoting the role of nuclear energy as ‘sustainable’ and advancing progress towards an EU minimum wage. Impacts Domestic politics and energy goals will render France less confrontational than other western members towards Hungary and Poland. The French presidency will focus on strengthening European coordination and cooperation regarding strategy in the Indo-Pacific. France is unlikely to use its presidency to intensify efforts to ratify the EU-China Comprehensive Agreement on Investment.

TurkStream would fit into Bulgaria’s plan for gas hub

2018 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Nuclear Energy ◽  
Domestic Politics ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Natural Gas Pipeline ◽  
Russian President ◽  
South Eastern Europe ◽  
Nord Stream ◽  
Vladimir Putin ◽  
Transit Routes ◽  
The Eu

Subject Revived plans to transit Russian gas through Bulgaria into Europe and build a nuclear plant at Belene. Significance Russian President Vladimir Putin is interested in extending the TurkStream natural gas pipeline into the EU and is counting on the European Commission and member states to show the same flexibility already seen in the case of Nord Stream. Although the EU-sponsored Southern Gas Corridor is boosting Gazprom’s competitors, Russia could gain advantage by accessing the new transit infrastructure. Impacts Ties to Russia will once again become a hot issue in Bulgarian domestic politics. New transit routes would bring down gas prices and boost consumption by industry and households across South-eastern Europe. High costs and political risk will limit the development of nuclear energy in Bulgaria and the region.

The international strength of the euro will grow

2021 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Euro Area ◽  
Financial Services ◽  
Raw Materials ◽  
Domestic Demand ◽  
Content Type ◽  
The Us ◽  
Us Dollar ◽  
Strategic Autonomy ◽  
Geopolitical Risks ◽  
The Eu

Significance The proposals identified areas where the euro could potentially become more dominant, such as the issuance of green bonds, digital currencies, and international trade in raw materials and energy. Ambitions to enhance the international leverage of the euro are being driven by the aim to strengthen EU strategic autonomy amid rising geopolitical risks. Impacts Developing its digital finance sector would be an opportunity for the EU to enhance its strategic autonomy in financial services. Challenging the US dollar would require the euro-area to rebalance its economy away from foreign to domestic demand. Member state division will prevent the economic reconfiguration the euro-area needed to make the euro a truly global currency.

scholarly journals The Pandemic and the Crisis in the System of International Relations

2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (5) ◽  
pp. 6-19
Author(s):  
Al. A. Gromyko
Keyword(s):  
International Relations ◽  
International Institutions ◽  
Competitive Advantages ◽  
Direct Impact ◽  
The Us ◽  
The World ◽  
World Economic ◽  
Strategic Autonomy ◽  
The Eu

The research is focused on several key problems in the system of international relations influenced by the COVID-19 pandemic. It is shown that the events caused by it and broadly identified as a coronacrisis have a direct impact on the world economic contradictions (pandenomica) and political ones, including the sphere of security. These particular aspects are chosen as the main objects of the research. The author contends that the factor of the pandemic has sharpened the competition between regional and global players and has increased the role of a nation- state. In the conditions of transregional deglobalisation, regionalism and “protectionism 2.0” get stronger under the banners of “strategic vulnerability” and “economic sovereignty”. A further weakening of multilateral international institutions continues. The EU endeavours to secure competitive advantages on the basis of relocalisation, industrial and digital policies and the Green Deal. The article highlights the deterioration in the relations among Russia, the US, the EU and China, the unfolding decoupling between Washington and its European allies, which stimulates the idea of the EU strategic autonomy. An urgent need for the deconfliction in Russia – NATO interaction is stated.

Next Dutch government will likely be ‘greener’

2021 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Government Policy ◽  
Nuclear Energy ◽  
Prime Minister ◽  
Dutch Government ◽  
Far Right ◽  
Government Formation ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Climate Targets ◽  
A Priority ◽  
The Eu

Significance Government formation should have been relatively straightforward but a series of political controversies have damaged VVD leader and Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte’s credibility with the CU and some opposition parties. Impacts The collective rise of the far-right vote means the far right will continue to worry centrist parties and thus influence government policy. Investment in nuclear energy to meet climate targets is unlikely to be a priority for the new government. Dutch influence in the EU could grow with the departure of Merkel in September, and Macron’s focus on the 2022 election.

scholarly journals European strategic autonomy: Energy at the heart of European security?

European View ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 19 (2) ◽  
pp. 238-244
Author(s):  
Eloïse Ryon
Keyword(s):  
Economic Consequences ◽  
European Security ◽  
Political Concept ◽  
Energy Union ◽  
Practical Development ◽  
Nord Stream ◽  
Strategic Autonomy ◽  
Radical Transformation ◽  
The Eu

Since Brexit and the COVID-19 pandemic, there has been a radical transformation of the meaning, use and role of the concept of strategic autonomy within the European project. Whereas its application was originally restricted to defence matters, it is now explicitly mentioned in other sectors, including pharmaceuticals. The COVID-19 pandemic and its political, social and economic consequences have considerably boosted the trend to broaden the concept’s sphere of application. Strategic autonomy has found new life as a key political concept that will help shape the future of the EU. But does the concept really apply to all sectors? To what extent is European strategic autonomy behind the development of the Energy Union? The article attempts to provide an answer to these questions through an analysis of the theoretical and practical development of the concept, focusing particularly on the debate around Nord Stream 2.

The Common Agricultural Policy: A Case of Embedded Liberalism

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christilla Roederer-Rynning
Keyword(s):  
Agricultural Policy ◽  
Common Agricultural Policy ◽  
Domestic Politics ◽  
Embedded Liberalism ◽  
The Common ◽  
Eastern European Countries ◽  
National Governments ◽  
The Eu ◽  
Domestic Impact

The Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) can be fruitfully construed as an instance of European embedded liberalism, shaped by overlapping layers of domestic, European Union, and international policymaking. Such a conceptualization reveals the large role of domestic politics, even in an area like the CAP, where policy competences were early on extensively transferred to the supranational level. This in turn reflects the rather prominent role of national governments in the EU construction, compared with traditional federal polities. This role can be probed by analyzing two related scholarly agendas: an agenda devoted to the shaping of the CAP by member states (policy shaping); and an agenda devoted to the domestic impact of the CAP. Current policy challenges highlight our need to develop our understanding of: (1) the interaction between different types of CAP decisions at the EU level; (2) the domestic impact of the CAP; (3) and the experience of Central and Eastern European Countries (CEEC).

scholarly journals The role of national intellectual capital in the digital transformation of EU countries. Another digital divide?

2020 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jadranka Švarc ◽  
Jasminka Lažnjak ◽  
Marina Dabić
Keyword(s):  
Human Capital ◽  
Digital Divide ◽  
Conceptual Model ◽  
Intellectual Capital ◽  
Digital Transformation ◽  
Member States ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Eu Member States ◽  
The Eu

PurposeThis study, an exploratory one, aims to empirically investigate the association of national intellectual capital (NIC) with the national digital transformation readiness of the European Union's (EU’s) member states. Apart from building the conceptual model of NIC, this study explores the role of NIC dimensions in the digital divide between European countries.Design/methodology/approachBased on the literature review and the available EU statistical data and indexes, the theoretical framework and conceptual model for NIC were developed. The model explores the relation of NIC and its dimensions (human, social, structural, relational and renewable/development capital) on the readiness of European countries for digital transformation and the digital divide. Significant differences between EU countries in NIC and digital readiness were tested. Multiple linear regression was used to explore the association of each NIC dimension with digital transformation and digital divide within the EU.FindingsDespite a positive association between all dimensions of NIC and digital transformation readiness, the proposed model of NIC was not confirmed in full. Regression analysis proved social capital and working skills, a dimension of human capital, to be the predictors of digital transformation at a national level, able to detect certain elements of digital divide between EU member states. Structural capital, knowledge and education, as dimensions of human capital, were predictors of the digital divide in terms of the integration of digital media in companies.Research limitations/implicationsThis research has a limited propensity for generalisation due to the lack of common measurement models in the field of NIC exploration.Practical implicationsThis research offers policy makers an indication of the relationships between NIC and digital transformation, pointing out which dimensions of NIC should be strengthened to allow the EU to meet the challenges of digital economy and to overcome the digital divide between EU member states.Social implicationsThe use of digital technologies is key in creating active and informed citizens in the public sphere and productive companies and economic growth in the business sphere.Originality/valueThis study provides an original theoretical framework and conceptual model through which to analyse the relationship between NIC and digital transformation, which has thus far not been explored at the level of the EU. This research makes an original contribution to the empirical exploration of NIC and produces new insights in the fields of digital transformation and intellectual capital.

Raising its Balkan profile will cost Russia little

2016 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Political Parties ◽  
Domestic Politics ◽  
Security Architecture ◽  
Western Balkans ◽  
The West ◽  
Content Type ◽  
The Balkans ◽  
The Eu

Subject Russia's contacts with Balkans political parties. Significance For Moscow, connections with Balkan parties are an instrument to exert influence in a region falling within the West's sphere. The declaration the ruling United Russia party signed with parties from Serbia, Bosnia-Hercegovina (BiH), Macedonia and Bulgaria on June 27 called for military neutrality in a Balkan zone of neutral sovereign states within a new pan-European continental security architecture that would exclude NATO membership and hark back to the Yugoslav policy of non-alignment. Impacts Russia will balance NATO expansion into the Western Balkans with initiatives to increase its influence in the region's domestic politics. Moscow will tacitly accept the Balkans' integration into the EU. Russia will seek to diversify alliances, cooperating with both mainstream pragmatists and radicals calling for a turn away from the West.

scholarly journals EUROPEAN UNION’S QUEST FOR STRATEGIC AUTONOMY AND BIDEN’S FOREIGN POLICY

2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (2/2021) ◽  
pp. 29-44
Author(s):  
Milan Igrutinovic
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
International Relations ◽  
Security Policy ◽  
The United States ◽  
First Year ◽  
Slow Recovery ◽  
Foreign And Security Policy ◽  
Strategic Autonomy ◽  
The Eu

Over the last decade the EU has faced challenges on numerous fronts: economic crisis and slow recovery, refugee crisis, terrorism, Brexit, lack of effectiveness of its foreign and security policy. In recent years, the EU has put new effort to define its purpose and standing in international relations, and it seeks to become strategically autonomous actor. That means an actor with the ability to set priorities and make decisions. As the role of the United States is still pre-eminent in the security of Europe, the EU-US relations have a special bearing on that EU’s ambition. In this paper we provide an overview of the relations between these two actors with the focus on the first year of Joseph Biden presidency, and we argue that through a complex interaction the EU will seek to define its policies independently of the United States, wishing to expand its space for maneuver and action.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document