• Bulletin article by Edgar Buckley, 01 August 2006

    In European Union defence, Britain and France spend the most money (45 per cent of the total), maintain the largest and most effective expeditionary forces, run the biggest defence industries and manage the most important research facilities.

  • Policy brief by Charles Grant, Hugo Brady, , Simon Tilford, 03 February 2006

    The European Union is suffering from a profound malaise. There have been difficult times in the past – such as the 'empty chair' left by General de Gaulle in the mid-1960s, the rows over the British budget contribution in the early 1980s, and the struggles to ratify the Maastricht treaty and preserve the Exchange Rate Mechanism in the early 1990s.

  • Briefing note by Katinka Barysch, 24 January 2006

    Austrians heaved a sigh of relief when the UK presidency brokered a last-minute deal on the EU budget in December 2005. The Austrian government hoped that the agreement would free its hands to focus on more rewarding issues during its presidency.

  • Essay by Charles Grant, 02 September 2005

    The German general election on September 18th 2005 is of massive interest to people all over the world. Because Germany is a large and influential EU member, its foreign policy matters not only to other European countries, but also those further afield, such as the Americans, the Russians and the Chinese.

  • Bulletin article by Katinka Barysch, 01 August 2005

    Europe is in the grip of a fundamental debate about its economic future, or at least that is what some politicians and many journalists would have us believe.

  • Bulletin article by Daniel Keohane, 01 August 2005

    On a grey Thursday morning in June 2006, Lee Barker, a 29-year-old Midlands businessman, was packing his bags to go to Germany.

  • Bulletin article by Alasdair Murray, 01 August 2005

    Of all the items on the agenda of the British EU presidency, perhaps the least expected is a debate on ‘social Europe’. Tired of being crudely caricatured as ‘neoliberal’, Tony Blair has invited EU leaders to an informal summit in October to discuss the future of Europe’s social model.

  • Briefing note by Charles Grant, Hugo Brady, , 02 May 2005

    In just over two weeks France will hold a referendum on the EU constitutional treaty. The outcome of the 29 May 2005 referendum remains on a knife-edge with the latest polls suggesting the country is split down the middle.