Research

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...

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.

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.

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).

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.

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.

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.

By 2020, according to the Economist Intelligence Unit, the Chinese economy could overtake the US to become the largest in the world, at least when measured using purchasing power parity (PPP) exchange rates. India is expected to grow rapidly to become the third biggest economy. Alongside these Asian giants, a series of smaller powers – such as Iran and Russia – will increasingly be able to exploit their nuclear weapons and energy to increase their say in world affairs.Mark Leonard was director of foreign policy at the CER (2005-2007).