In the week leading up to CEPS annual conference, Ideas Lab, we are hosting a series of high-level events to help set the scene of the current geopolitical and economic landscape. We are delighted to welcome Josep Borrell, EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and Vice-President of the European Commission for a mid-term assessment of the EU’s foreign policy.
The COVID-19 pandemic and the war against Ukraine have made it clear that the EU inhabits a world defined by growing competition between states; a more multipolar, less multilateral world; and a world where interdependence is weaponised. This was also the main theme of HR/VP’s recent book ‘Staying the course in troubled water‘, which describes the main events and decisions in EU foreign policy in 2021. Since then, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is said to have produced global ramifications and a ‘transformative moment’ for the EU, pushing the Union to substantiate its claim to be a geopolitical actor that is ‘speaking the language of power’. All this raises the question how unprecedented the EU’s policy response to the Ukraine war has been and whether it will lead to a change in how the EU designs, conducts, implements and enforces policy in the future. How should we assess EU foreign policy at mid-term? What broader lessons should the EU learn? And how can it achieve more results on the issues that will shape its strategic environment?
