The assessment of France’s six-month Presidency of the Council has been mostly positive. It brokered a record 130 agreements and played a key role in the EU’s response to the war in Ukraine. EU leaders were full of praise. France has delivered – and delivered well. Not everyone agrees, however. Some EU capitals resent France […]
The EU currently faces a volatile and shifting environment in the Eastern Mediterranean (East Med) centred on a difficult relationship with Turkey. This coincides with a moment of profound change in world order. French President Emmanuel Macron and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen have both pledged to build a more ‘geopolitical’ EU, but […]
In a rare and swift show of unity, EU institutions and member states have condemned the forced landing Ryanair flight in Minsk on 23 May 2021. In some sense, the incident also hijacked the European Council meeting, during which leaders decided on a mix of restrictive measures against those responsible for what the CEO of Ryanair […]
The rivalry and contestation of today’s world should be reason enough for the European Union to act as a cohesive force, if only to avoid being outmanoeuvred by major powers. Yet EU countries and institutions are still struggling to set aside their differences and focus on the common interest. The 10th anniversary of the European […]