European Policy Centre

👉 How effective has NATO been in Ukraine? This is precisely what EPC's senior visiting fellow, Paul Taylor looks at in his latest commentary. When diving into what has been the result of NATO's achievements and failures in Ukraine since 2022; Paul Taylor highlights 'After two years of avoiding direct involvement, shielding NATO’s members but failing to give Ukraine decisive assistance, allied governments have realised that their efforts may have been insufficient. Having overpromised and underdelivered to Ukraine, NATO is staring possible failure in the face. However, it is not clear if the alliance knows or can agree what to do. Working more closely with the EU to accelerate European arms production using EU money and NATO defence planning would be one vital step, rather than waging turf battles while Ukraine burns.' Read here 🎯

🔔 Have you read our latest publication yet? Confronting the permacrisis: Time for a supra- governmental avantgarde by Fabian Zuleeg, Janis Emmanouilidis and Almut Möller; explores the many crisis facing the EU. This paper discusses the EU27 entering a new politico-institutional cycle, the tasks and obstacles ahead look daunting. Russia continues its war of aggression against Ukraine, and the EU will be confronted with an aggressive Moscow for years to come. The list of interrelated crises is ever extending, accompanied by fundamental transformations of Europe’s societies, driven by climate change and the loss of biodiversity, demography and ageing, and global technological revolutions. The ‘old West’ is suffering from increasing political fragmentation and polarisation, amounting to a clear danger for pluralist, liberal democracies. Yet, the multiple challenges linked to the European and global Zeitenwende should not be taken as an excuse for despair, introspection, inertia, and inaction but function as a rallying call: it is a moral imperative that we do all we can to change potential dismal outcomes for future generations. Read here 🎯 https://buff.ly/3Wr7Bez

🚨 NEW PUBLICATION | Funding Europe’s Technology Revival by Paweł Świeboda High value economic activity needs to encompass technology leadership. It is high technology that delivers faster sales and profits. As such, it also contributes to economic security, an increasingly important policy objective in the age of global shocks. Due to its past industrial strength, Europe has comparatively more to say in mid-technology areas. Its excellence in high technology is limited to several niche areas. The main drawbacks which account for this situation have to do with an insufficiently conducive ecosystem, inferior demand and inadequate funding. Read here 🎯

🚨 NEW PUBLICATION | Reinvigorating Schengen amid legal changes and secondary movements New rules in the revised Schengen Borders Code Regulation (SBCR) respond to these concerns about secondary movements. In conjunction with the reformed Dublin criteria in the Asylum and Migration Management Regulation (AMMR), these provisions amount to an agglomeration of half-hearted structural reforms, complex legislative prescriptions, deference to state preferences, and procedural safeguards whose robustness remains to be tested. At the same time, it is unlikely that they will help to significantly reduce secondary movements. Read Daniel Thym's Discussion Paper on the reformed Schengen Borders Code here 👇

With Ursula von der Leyen securing a second term as commissioner; her priorities for the next five years emphasises the need to boost innovation. Innovation which would include better climate action and green. Commitment to the Green deal is also a priority to von der Leyen. In her political guidelines, von der Leyen has committed to ' scale-up and prioritise investment in clean energy infrastructure and technologies' - A clean industrial deal that included digitalising energy systems and deployment of hydrogen network would be of essence. A stronger vision on climate action and energy will empower citizens to take control of their future. EPC's Laura Rayner , Berta López Domènech , Brooke Moore and Eric Maurice collaborated to highlight how the next steps into facilitating green transitioning in Europe namely looking at how digital solutions support top-down and bottom-up methods of citizen involvement, ranging from citizen climate assemblies to online activism. Read here 🎯

🚨 READ OUR LATEST | 14th package of sanctions: advancing but with many compromises In this #EPCcommentary, Svitlana Taran elaborates on the EU’s 14th sanctions package which aimed to strengthen sanctions against Russia. However, Russia still has room to manoeuvre, as some measures appear less ambitious than they could have been due to political compromises. Svitlana highlights how their implementation and impact should be closely monitored and further fine-tuned. A spike of attacks by Russia against Ukrainian civilians and critical infrastructure is causing civilian casualties, and extensive damage to energy facilities, disrupting electricity access and leading to massive power outages across the country. Russian missiles that destroy Ukrainian cities often use Western-designed components, including those that recently struck the children’s hospital in Kyiv. This attack further emphasised the Kremlin’s ability to buy and import Western components and evade Western sanctions. While the EU’s latest 14th Sanctions Package is an important step to further close the loopholes, Russia still has room to manoeuvre and much more must be done. Read it here 👇 https://buff.ly/3WrpiuA

🚨 READ OUR LATEST | EU–China relations at a crossroads, Vol. III: Business Unusual The EPC is proud to announce the release of the third volume of the EU-China relations at a crossroads series. Edited and compiled by Ivano di Carlo, this compendium explores the ever-evolving context of EU–China relations. This publication comprises 12 input papers that provide the views of European and Chinese experts on specific policy issues in 2024. Particularly as we enter a new institutional cycle in the EU, the compendium offers an opportunity to reflect on how the EU-China relationship has developed over the past few months as well as its future outlook. The EU & China Think-Tank Exchanges project, coordinated by the European Policy Centre (EPC) with the cooperation of EGMONT–The Royal Institute for International Relations, the China Institute of International Studies (CIIS) and the Center for China and Globalization (CCG), aims to strengthen and stimulate a dialogue between think tanks and research institutes across the EU and China. Read here: https://buff.ly/4f39BAH

💥 Read our latest Policy Brief - Fit for the Future: Mobility and Dynamics after the EU Year of Skills: Are we fit for the future? This paper highlights recommendations to address labour shortages and skills gaps through enhanced skills mobility. These recommendations draw insights from the activities of the project, ‘Fit for the future? The European Skills Agenda between migration and labour dynamics’, launched by the European Policy Centre (EPC), the International Centre for Migration Policy Development (ICMPD), the Egmont Institute and the Belgian Development Agency, Enabel. These included a series of expert workshops and a final conference that brought together practitioners, policymakers, the private sector and social partners from the EU and beyond. Read here 🎯

🚨 NEW PUBLICATION | Funding Europe’s Technology Revival by Paweł Świeboda High value economic activity needs to encompass technology leadership. It is high technology that delivers faster sales and profits. As such, it also contributes to economic security, an increasingly important policy objective in the age of global shocks. Due to its past industrial strength, Europe has comparatively more to say in mid-technology areas. Its excellence in high technology is limited to several niche areas. The main drawbacks which account for this situation have to do with an insufficiently conducive ecosystem, inferior demand and inadequate funding. Read here

How can enhanced #SkillsMobility tackle labour shortages and skills gaps in the EU? In 2023, an estimated 3 in 4 European employers struggled to find employees with the requisite skill sets, and the EU’s working-age population is expected to decrease by 27 million by 2050. At the same time, many African, Asian and Latin American countries are witnessing a rise in their working-age populations. In this context, our latest policy brief, the result of a project conducted with European Policy Centre, EGMONT - Royal Institute for International Relations and Enabel during the #EUYearOfSkills, provides a series of recommendations for EU and national policymakers as well as other key actors related to: I. Strengthening skills intelligence to effectively align policy responses with labour market needs in the EU and partner countries II. Promoting skills-first responses to ensure talent attraction and retention III. Promoting skills development as a basis for balanced international partnerships IV. Strengthening the skills agenda and labour mobility schemes through a stronger governance system and targeted financing Dive into our policy brief below to explore how these strategies can foster global skills development and mobility and strengthen talent attraction and retention in Europe and beyond: https://lnkd.in/dHUsUFt9 #SkillsMobility #LabourMarket #EUEmployment #TalentAttraction #PolicyBrief International Centre for Migration Policy Development (ICMPD)