New Pact for Europe - National Report - ITALY. EPC Report, July 2017

This is the fifth in a series of National Reports to be published as part of the new phase of the New Pact for Europe project.* According to the NPE Italian Reflection Group, the EU is stuck, with member countries prioritising national interests over the European ones, while problems in the economic, security and migration policy areas are far from overcome. Drawing on the discussions held amongst the members of the group, the report presents a set of conclusions on how to address the key challenges the Union and member states are facing at the moment, and calls on them to take action to boost the legitimacy of the European integration project

The Case of EU Support for Resilience in the Neighbourhood

In a world of increasingly complex challenges, greater engagement between scholars and practitioners presents both sides with a significant opportunity for acquiring new knowledge. Traditional patterns of theory-practice exchange have mostly revolved around processes of knowledge transfer from scholars to officials. Academics do indeed have much to offer to policymakers; they bring a historical perspective and have extensive knowledge of the underlying causes of political and social trends, which they can also trace to policies carried out—or not carried out—by diplomats. They can thus provide policymakers with broader narratives that policymakers can use to give greater context to their action. But academics can also learn much more from policymakers. The latter do not elaborate on policies from the comfort zone of independent research. They are part of large bureaucratic processes in which multiple factors—political expediency, intra- and inter-agency coordination, number, education, and turnover rate of personnel, organizational structures, and financial resources—contribute to shaping policies. Furthermore, policymakers work within much shorter time horizons. This article takes the case of European policies in support of resilience in the EU’s neighbourhood to explore the potential of a more flexible model of theory-practice engagement based on knowledge exchange rather than transfer

Lead groups in EU foreign policy: the cases of Iran and Ukraine

Since the creation of the EU, there have been instances in which a restricted number of member states has handled an issue of international security on behalf of the Union. This article argues that, while controversial, these ‘lead groups’ have been a valuable practice. They have been effective in generating intra-EU consensus on specific issues and spurring the EU into action, thereby enabling a European response in the context of conflict management and complex international negotiations. Lead groups are sub-optimal arrangements compensating for the in-built institutional shortcomings of unanimity-based decision-making in EU foreign policy. As such, they do not bring integration further. They have nonetheless shown significant potential in giving initiative and content to EU foreign policy. This is shown through the analysis of two case studies, the Anglo-Franco-German trio involved in Iran’s nuclear issue and the Franco-German duo brokering a truce between Russia and Ukraine

Differentiation in EU foreign and security policy: EU Lead Groups in the Iranian nuclear dispute and the Ukraine crisis

Since the creation of the EU, there have been instances in which a restricted number of member states have handled an issue of international security on behalf of the Union. While controversial, these “lead groups” have been a valuable practice. They can enable a European response in the context of urgent conflict management and complex international negotiations. While they do not drive further EU integration, lead groups have been effective in generating intra-EU consensus on specific issues and spurring the EU into action. The paper assesses the conditions and performance of this foreign policy practice through an analysis of EU lead groups in the negotiations on Iran’s nuclear programme and the Normandy mediation format between Ukraine and Russia. Lead groups are sub-optimal arrangements compensating for the in-built institutional shortcomings of unanimity-based decision-making in EU foreign policy. They have nonetheless shown significant potential in giving initiative and content to EU foreign policy, in that they either operationalise positions agreed at the EU level or create a policy where there had been none

Navigating a Covid World: The European Union's Internal Rebirth and External Quest

The world on which Covid-19 has unleashed its destructive force is one where the partly supranational and multilateral-minded EU is ill at ease. The pandemic has devastated economies across the wor..

A Changing Picture with Unaltered Contours. US-Iran Antagonism in the Context of the Iraq-Syria Crisis A Changing Picture with Unaltered Contours US-Iran Antagonism in the Context of the Iraq-Syria Crisis A Changing Picture with Unaltered Contours US-Iran

AbStRACt Such is the magnitude of the crisis in Iraq and Syria that experts have started wondering whether the area will witness a major realignment between the main rival camps, the US and its allies on the one hand and Iran and its proxies on the other. the US and Iran -so the argument goes -share a critical interest in fighting the Islamic State and keep Iraq from total breakdown. Only by joining forces can they bring stability to the region, which incidentally should also serve as an incentive for both parties to reach a compromise on the nuclear issue. this interpretation, however, fails to account for the effects that a US-Iran rapprochement would have on the US's system of alliances in the region. US-Iran relations are likely to remain antagonistic, although the Iraq-Syria crisis and the nuclear issue have indeed the potential to re-orientate them along a less adversarial pattern

The September UN vote on Palestine : will the EU be up to the challenge?

Riccardo Alcaro and Andrea Dess

Avoiding the unnecessary war : myths and reality of the West-Iran nuclear standoff

Riccardo Alcar