The Geopolitical Commission: Learning the ‘Language of Power’? College of Europe Policy Brief #2/20 February 2020

The European Commission under President Ursula von der Leyen has branded itself as a ‘geopolitical Commission’. Does this imply a geopolitical turn in the external action of the European Union (EU)? > According to High Representative Josep Borrell, the EU needs to learn the ‘language of power’ so as to translate its resources into geopolitical impact. First fledgling signs of a search for more economic sovereignty, strategic autonomy, leadership and ‘weaponised’ trade have emerged already in recent years. Many of these initiatives still need to be implemented while new ones are being added. > Geopolitical EU external action implies a more integrated external action. It also means reinforcing the EU’s resilience against external pressure, while not neglecting ‘geopolitical cooperation’ in the face of geopolitical competition. The geopolitical Commission will have to find a ‘European way’ to deal with great power challenges in line with the EU’s capabilities and values

‘Trade for All’ – All for Trade? The EU’s New Strategy. College of Europe Policy Brief #3.16, January 2016

Executive Summary > The ‘Trade for All’ strategy presented in late 2015 is the culmination of a decade-long re-orientation of EU trade policy towards more competitiveness, including a shift to reciprocal free trade with developing countries. > The rise of the emerging economies and the stagnation of the Doha Round contributed to a proliferation of deeper and more comprehensive bilateral free trade agreements. > While EU trade policy has become more strategic, aiming at bigger partners, it has not yet found a way to deal with China and Russia. > ‘Trade for All’ also aims to respond to the heated debates about the TTIP negotiations by promoting transparency and high standards of protection. > Finally, implementing a ‘more responsible’ EU trade policy will require a convergence of rhetoric and action through a reconciliation of values and interests

Papers prepared for the Colloquium "Working for Europe: Perspectives on the EU 50 Years after the Treaties of Rome"

The Chamber of Representatives of the Belgian Parliament asked the permanent professors of the College of Europe to write brief papers for a conference organized in honour of the 50th anniversary of the Treaty of Rome. The objective of these papers was to highlight the main challenges facing the European Union in four different issue areas (Lisbon Strategy, enlargement, Neighbourhood Policy and institutional reform) and to generate a debate among Belgian academics, politicians and members of civil society. The papers produced used to promote this discussion are reprinted here

The Geopolitical Commission: Learning the ‘Language of Power’? College of Europe Policy Brief February 2020.

The European Commission under President Ursula von der Leyen has branded itself as a ‘geopolitical Commission’. Does this imply a geopolitical turn in the external action of the European Union (EU)? According to High Representative Josep Borrell, the EU needs to learn the ‘language of power’ so as to translate its resources into geopolitical impact. First fledgling signs of a search for more economic sovereignty, strategic autonomy, leadership and ‘weaponised’ trade have emerged already in recent years. Many of these initiatives still need to be implemented while new ones are being added. Geopolitical EU external action implies a more integrated external action. It also means reinforcing the EU’s resilience against external pressure, while not neglecting ‘geopolitical cooperation’ in the face of geopolitical competition. The geopolitical Commission will have to find a ‘European way’ to deal with great power challenges in line with the EU’s capabilities and values

The Contestation of Values in the European Neighbourhood Policy: Challenges of Capacity, Consistency and Competition

When launching the European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP), the European Union (EU) expected that through a steady process of rapprochement, the neighbouring countries would progressively become part of the EU’s community of values. The European Commission (2004: 5) declared that “[t]he European Neighbourhood Policy’s vision involves a ring of countries, sharing the EU’s fundamental values and objectives, drawn into an increasingly close relationship, going beyond co-operation to involve a significant measure of economic and political integration”. This promise raised high expectations for a comprehensive regulatory and legislative alignment of the neighbours with significant socio-economic and political reforms according to the priorities set out in jointly agreed Action Plans and with benchmarks that can be monitored and assessed. The Action Plans would cover “first, commitments to specific actions which confirm or reinforce adherence to shared values and […] secondly, commitments to actions which will bring partner countries closer to the EU in a number of priority fields” (ibid.: 9)

‘Brexit’ lessons from third countries’ differentiated integration with the EU’s internal market. College of Europe Policy Brief #14.16, September 2016

Executive Summary > The ‘Brexit’ debate has triggered new interest in the European Union’s close economic relations with its neighbours. > This external ‘differentiated integration’ flourished since the 1990s, ranging from narrow, bilateral and static models to broad, multilateral and dynamic models. > Major lessons can be drawn from these models for the UK’s ‘differentiated disintegration’: 1. deep economic integration involves domestic regulatory issues and tends to be based on the acquis; 2. cherry-picking, such as excluding the free movement of persons from a comprehensive accessto the internal market, is not on offer; and 3. even the European Free Trade Area members of the highly institutionalised European Economic Area have very limited access to EU decision-making

Although Britain won't rejoin EFTA, it can learn a great deal from its experience

Although Theresa May wants a bespoke deal with the EU that will be outside the European Free Trade Association, EFTA's own relationship with the Union is instructive, write Sieglinde Gstöhl (College of Europe) and Christian Frommelt (Liechtenstein Institute). It sheds light on the challenges of an 'arm's-length' relationship with the EU, in particular for trade policy. In her Florence speech in September, Theresa ..

The European Union in its Neighbourhood: An Accidental Regional Hegemon. College of Europe Policy Brief #4.18, March 2018

> Drawing on a definition by Miriam Prys, this policy brief conceptualises the European Union as an ‘accidental regional hegemon’ in its neighbourhood, based on ‘4 Ps’: (1) the provision of regional public goods, (2) internal and external perceptions, (3) the projection of political, economic and institutional norms, including EU acquis, and (4) the (limited) participation of neighbours in EU structures and policies. > As such, the EU has since the 1990s intentionally or inadvertently ‘exported’ not just political values but various types of norms to a growing number of Western Eastern and Southern neighbouring countries. Yet, the EU needs to become more aware of the implications of its accidental hegemony. It needs to supply the right regional public goods, manage perceptions, monitor the projected norms and offer close neighbours ways to participate in their making. > The neighbours also need to better understand the EU’s accidental hegemony: what it can realistically offer and what they may in turn have to contribute, or how to deal with trade-offs between market access and participatory gaps in governance. > Finally, the EU needs to rethink not only the future of its internal differentiation but also offer external differentiated integration in the form of viable alternatives to full membership