European Union

The perspective of an EU-accession for Turkey has receded far into the distance: Sinan Ülgen, Visiting Scholar at Carnegie Europe, presented his proposal to reinvigorate Turkish-European relations at a DGAP “Brussels Briefing.” With Almut Möller, head of the Oppenheim-Centre for European Policy Studies, he discussed new forms of flexible integration – not as an alternative but as a complement.

The European External Action Service is still being developed as the European Parliament is promoting another project: Franziska Brantner, European MP for the Green Party, introduced a Swedish-Finnish initiative for the founding of a European Peace Institute at a DGAP Brussels Briefing. Joined by Bundestag MP Joachim Spatz and Tobias Pietz from the Center for International Peace Operations, she discussed how the institute could look and the EU’s role as a civil power.

Ziehen sich die Briten aus Kernbereichen der EU zurück, droht gar ein Austritt? Im Land verschärft sich der Streit zwischen EU-Befürwortern und Euroskeptikern. Noch in diesem Monat wird Premierminister David Cameron eine mit Spannung erwartete Grundsatzrede zur Mitgliedschaft seines Landes halten. Lord Wallace stellte in Berlin die Balance of Competences Review vor, eine Initiative der Regierung zur Überprüfung der Zuständigkeiten.

Since the outbreak of the financial crisis, the political rift between the island of Great Britain and continental Europe has widened. Why opinions on the EU have diverged so much and why the answers to the financial crisis have varied so significantly – and what this could lead to – were the topics of a discussion at an Early Bird Breakfast with journalists David Charter of The Times and Quentin Peel of the Financial Times, as well as EU expert Almut Möller.