ELIAMEP

The question should be reversed: Can the EU have any kind of meaningful role without being strategic? The EU has not fared very well in comparison with its main competitors in terms of protecting its members and its citizens’ interests. Nor has the EU risen to the challenge of stabilizing its neighborhood. Furthermore, various crises have exposed a lack of geopolitical reflexes. And the EU is paying a price for those failures. Britain’s vote to leave the bloc has dealt a heavy blow to the EU’s unity and its capabilities in the spheres of foreign policy and defense.

Ironically, however, and in combination with the election of U.S. President Donald Trump, Brexit has also created a brief window of opportunity for the EU to reconsider its options and launch a new effort in various sectors of European politics, including defense and security. Acting collectively, the EU has the necessary economic weight but lacks the diplomatic and military weight to be a global actor. Both problems can be addressed, as the human, technological, and financial capabilities do exist. What is seriously questioned is the necessary political will—given that individually, no member state is sufficiently strong to flourish in this brave new world. The last wake-up call for Europe, perhaps.

By Thanos Dokos

Source: Carnegie Europe

You can read here the article on future perspectives for Turkey, which was written by Director General of ELIAMEP Dr Thanos Dokos. This commentary was published in the Greek daily Kathimerini on 8 March  2017 [in Greek].

Ambassador (retired) Alexandros Mallias wrote an article in Kathimerini newspaper discussing Greek-American relations under Trump. You can access the article here (in Greek)

Research Fellow of ELIAMEP Dr Eleni Panagiotarea wrote in the Sunday edition of Kathimerini on the second review of the third Greek bailout. You can read the article here (in Greek).

In  ELIAMEP Policy Paper No. 26 Dr Theodore Tsakiris analyses relations between Russia and Turkey placing emphasis on the decision of the countries to construct ‘Turkish Stream’ pipeline. He examines the new perspectives of energy cooperation and assesses challenges and opportunities for Greece.

You can find more information for this event on the Greek version of our website.

The Second Economic Forum took place in Delphi from 2 until 5 March 2017. ELIAMEP constitutes a programming partner. President of ELIAMEP, Professor Loukas Tsoukalis talked about the future of the European Union and Europe. Director General, Dr Thanos Dokos, chaired a panel on geopolitics in Eastern Mediterranean. And  Member of the Board of Directors, Professor George Pagoulatos, spoke about the impact of Brexit and the new globalization.

You can find here more information

You can read here the article on the crisis on foreign policy and security, which was written by Director General of ELIAMEP Dr Thanos Dokos. This commentary was published in the Greek daily Kathimerini on 23 February  2017 [in Greek].

The Enlargement has been on the EEC/EU agenda all along its history and was believed to be its “most successful” policy. Although enlargement policy was built on values and rules, geopolitics have traditionally been a strong driving force behind it, while tension between widening and deepening has always been present. The fifth enlargement was instrumentalised by the prevailing policies of extreme neoliberalism causing public opinion reaction and nurturing “enlargement fatigue”. The implicit enlargement agenda in the neighbourhood policy has been put to the service of anti-Russian strategies which have utterly failed while jeopardising good neighbourly relations with Moscow and contributing to the negative turn of the Putin regime. During the last decade, enlargement policy has rapidly degenerated and today it is essentially at a standstill in all three of its dimensions (Balkans, Turkey, European neighbourhood countries). This is a negative development both for the EU and its neighbours. The revival of the policy is conditional upon a necessary, but improbable, major shift in the EU, with the strengthening of solidarity.

Author: Axel Sotiris Wallden

Essay: The demise of EU enlargement policy

Dr. Panagiota Manoli, Head of the Slavic, East-European and Eurasian Studies Programme of ELIAMEP participated at the 7th European Forum of Think Tanks, organised in La Valetta on 27 and 28 February 2017, by the Jacques Delors Institute with the support of the Maltese Presidency of the Council of the European Union. This Forum linked to the Think Global – Act European (TGAE) initiative, is entitled “The EU’s Neighbourhood: How to Stabilise the Ring of Fire?” and it gathers a group of 40 prominent speakers and researchers engaged in the EU Neighbourhood Policy on the fields of security, governance, economy and migration.

Professor George Pagoulatos wrote on the need to conclude the bailout review in the Sunday edition of Kathimerini. The article was published on 19 February 2017 and is available here.

President of ELIAMEP, Professor Loukas Tsoukalis wrote an article in the Sunday edition of Kathimerini on the Greek crisis. This article was published on 19 February 2017 and is available here (in Greek).

On Tuesday 14 February 2017, the Hellenic Foundation for European and Foreign Policy (ELIAMEP) organized “New Pact for Europe” National Reflection Group. The event took place in Aegli Zappeiou in the context of the New Pact for Europe Programme.

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The Hellenic Foundation for European & Foreign Policy (ELIAMEP) and the Hellenic American Leadership Council (HALC) issued a joint paper exploring if a viable solution in Cyprus is feasible. This paper is available here. Last year ELIAMEP and HALC also issued a joint paper proposing measures to better deal with the refugee crisis.

Research Fellow of ELIAMEP Dr Eleni Panagiotarea analysed in the Sunday edition of Kathimerini if a pan-EU ‘bad bank’ could be a solution for Greece. You can read the article here (in Greek).

ELIAMEP Research Fellow Dr Angeliki Dimitriadi contributed with a chapter on the Greek case in the edited volume: Beyond the migration and asylum crisis – Options and lessons for Europe. This ebook is edited by Ferruccio Pastore and is published by Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana. You can find here more information.

This article authored by Roxana Bratu, Dimitri Sotiropoulos and Maya Stoyanova and published in Slavonic and East European Review examines the construction and development of corruption concerns and anti-corruption practices from a comparative perspective in Bulgaria, Greece and Romania. It poses the question: how do corruption perceptions, policies and assumptions shape anti-corruption practices? Instead of looking at anti-corruption as an analytical category, this article takes the term back to its empirical dimension by contextually examining the emergence, role and practices of anti-corruption from a comparative perspective.

The article is available here.

You can read here the article on Greek-Turkish relations which was written by Director General of ELIAMEP Dr Thanos Dokos. This commentary was published in the Greek daily Kathimerini on 8 February  2017 [in Greek].

Associate Professor  at the University of Athens and  Senior Research Fellow at ELIAMEP Dimitri A. Sotiropoulos wrote an article about the crisis in Greece in the Sunday edition of To Vima newspaper. The article was published on 5 February 2017 and is available here (in Greek).