Research

Engaging Iran

Engaging Iran: A test case for EU foreign policy

Steven Everts
05 March 2004
After the Iraq debacle, the EU badly needs a foreign policy success. Steven Everts argues that Europe's strategy of 'conditional engagement' has produced some modest results.
The Lisbon scorecard IV

The Lisbon scorecard IV: The status of economic reform in the enlarging EU

Aladair Murray
05 March 2004
With cynicism, even derision – this is how many Europeans look at the EU's key economic target, namely to become the "most competitive and dynamic, knowledge-based economy in the world" by 2010.
The EU budget

The EU budget: Common future or stuck in the past?

Iain Begg
06 February 2004
The EU's common budget is small and rather rigid. Most of its outlays are determined years in advance, and most of them go on just two policies, namely support for farmers and poorer regions. Yet the EU budget invariably attracts acrimonious debate and close scrutiny out of all proportion to its economic significance.
Could a hard core run the enlarged EU?

Could a hard core run the enlarged EU?

Heather Grabbe, Ulrike Guérot
06 February 2004
The leaders of France, Germany and the UK meet in Berlin on 18 February 2004 to try to forge a joint agenda for the EU. The summit is partly aimed at a rapprochement between the 'Big Three' after Iraq.
Jobs for the boys

Jobs for the boys

Steven Everts
02 February 2004
Last year may have been an annus horribilis for the EU, but 2004 looks set to be just as divisive. In between negotiating a new EU budget and a possible starting date for Turkey's accession negotiations, EU leaders have to choose a new Commission president.
Poland: the EU's new awkward partner

Poland: the EU's new awkward partner

Heather Grabbe
02 February 2004
As a former member of Poland's communist Politburo, Leszek Miller has little in common with Margaret Thatcher or John Major. But the Polish prime minister has adopted very similar negotiating tactics in the EU.
Policing public sector aid

Policing public sector aid

Alasdair Murray
02 February 2004
Europe's powerful public sector trade unions are campaigning to protect public services from the disciplines of EU competition and state aid laws.
Bulletin issue 34

Issue 34 - 2004

Steven Everts, Heather Grabbe, Alasdair Murray
30 January 2004
Is Europe working?

Is Europe working?

Katinka Barysch
01 January 2004
With more than 14 million people out of work, unemployment is the EU's greatest economic problem. However, while EU policy-makers ponder Germany's 4.3 million unemployed, Britain's low labour productivity and Italy's greying workforce, they have missed one of Europe's key labour market challenges: eastward enlargement.
If the EU's labour market statistics...
EU constitution

Should Britain hold a referendum on the EU Constitution?

Steven Everts and Charles Grant
01 January 2004
Dear Charles,
European leaders are busy drawing up a constitution which will set out what tasks the EU should and should not perform; clarify who is responsible for what; and specify how the EU takes decisions. Once governments have agreed a final text, the question becomes: how should each country...
Security

A joined-up EU security policy

Daniel Keohane and Adam Townsend
01 January 2004
EU member-states disagree on whether the EU should have its own military headquarters, or continue to depend on NATO to help run EU operations. This dispute is becoming increasingly theological.