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EU-RUSSIA
RELATIONS |
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On Friday May 21st the EU and Russia will meet in Moscow for one
of their six-monthly summits. They are hoping to sign a trade deal
that would open the way for Russia's WTO accession. Such a deal
would be a great achievement. Only a couple of months ago the EU
was threatening Russia with trade sanctions after Russia refused
to extend bilateral trade agreements to the new member-states.
The
EU and Russia share a multitude of common interests and objectives.
The EU is Russia's biggest export market. Russia is the EU's biggest
neighbour and one of its key energy suppliers. Yet the two sides
find it very difficult to get on. Neither has a clear idea of their
relationship is heading. Mutual suspicions and mistrust mar their
bilateral dealings.
Outlook
and recommendations on EU-Russia relations
Extract from the forthcoming CER pamphlet
The EU and Russia: Strategic partners or squabbling neighbours
by Katinka Barysch
Whither EU-Russian
Relations? by Katinka Barysch, The Moscow Times, 21 May
2004
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NEW
CER WORKING PAPER |
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MANUFACTURING
FIRST
A new way forward for global trade
by Bruce Stokes
Global
trade negotiations inside the WTO remain stalled. Recently, negotiators
have talked up the prospects for progress in the ‘Doha development
round’ – but no one is expecting an imminent breakthrough.
In this new CER working paper Bruce Stokes argues policy-makers
in Brussels and Washington must think and act more creatively. The
first priority should be a revival of the Doha round. To that end,
the EU and US should show greater flexibility in their negotiating
strategies, especially in the area of agriculture.
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NEW
CER PAMPHLET |
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A
EUROPEAN WAY OF WAR
by Steven Everts, Lawrence Freedman,
Charles Grant, François Heisbourg,
Daniel Keohane and Michael O'Hanlon
The
Europeans should develop their own distinctive approach to warfare,
argue the authors of this pamphlet. Although the Europeans can learn
from the Americans on how to prepare for the most demanding sorts
of military mission, they should build on their core strengths of
peacekeeping, nation-building and counter insurgency. Britain and
France, having the most battlehoned armed forces, should take a
lead in defining the European way. And the Americans have plenty
to learn from the Europeans when it comes to stabilising countries
after a conflict.
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NEW
CER PAMPHLET |
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THE CONSTELLATIONS
OF EUROPE
How enlargement will transform the EU
by Heather Grabbe
Eastward
enlargement will change the EU far more than its current members
expect. Many people predict that the arrival of ten new countries
will paralyse decision-making, but few have thought about how the
newcomers will shape the various EU policies. Heather Grabbe plots
the new members' positions in the emerging constellations of Europe
- on the new constitution, the EU's budget, economic and regulatory
policies, border controls, defence and the EU's role in the world.
She argues that widening will ultimately lead to a deepening of
European integration.
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CER
ANALYSIS |
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The
dangerous idea of partitioning Iraq-A Balkan lesson
by Carl Bildt, International Herald Tribune, 20 May 2004
A security strategy for Europe - The Solana strategy in the wake
of Madrid
by Chris Patten, Javier Solana, Doug Bereuter, Barry Posen, Steven
Everts, Oxford Journal on good governance,
May 2004
Big bang that began with a whimper
by Heather Grabbe, E!Sharp, May 2004
Where is the EU heading? by Bob van den Bos, Tony Judt,
Heather Grabbe, Mehmet Ugur, Jan Zielonka, Carl Lankowski, Anthony
Coughlan and Andrid Gobins, BBC News, 29 April 2004
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CER
BULLETIN 35 APRIL/MAY 2004 |
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CER
event
LAUNCH
OF
'THE CONSTELLATIONS
OF EUROPE'
With Enlargement Commissioner Günter Verheugen in Brussels,
May 27th 2004, 12-13.30.
We
still have a few places available for this CER event. If you would
like to attend, please contact
Catherine Hoye
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CER
in the press
The
Guardian
21 May 2004
The
yob of Europe: Negotiations over the constitution show all that is
worst about the EU - and Britain behaves worst of all
The
EU will fossilise as nothing important is reformed or progressed,
with 25 vetos. The union's many deformities will fester, from fraud
to the CAP. Meanwhile France and Germany, now joined by Spain under
its new government, are already laying plans to become a "hard
core", hurrying ahead alone to forge ever closer links. Even
though wise observers in the Centre for European Reform note that
they are having difficulty turning hard core rhetoric into hard policy,
the rest will be left behind. Britain's brilliant diplomacy will have
engineered exactly what it always feared - marginalisation by a Franco
German axis.
International Herald
Tribune
19 May 2004
Constitution for
EU hits new set of snags
Heather Grabbe, the deputy director at the Center for European
Reform in London, said that Straw was trying to depict a hard-line
image because it could help win support for the constitution in the
referendum being planned by the British government. "This
is typical EU politics," Grabbe said. "They've got to look
tough to the electorate, and they have got to be able to claim lots
of victories to fend off the charges of Euroskeptics that they have
signed up to a federalizing agenda for the EU."
Reuters
19 May 2004
EU
and Russia eye trade prize to smooth ties
Each side still sees relations in its own way, said Katinka Barysch,
chief economist at the Centre for European Reform. "The EU's
main goal is to nudge Russia along the path of economic reform and
democratisation," she said in a new report, "EU and Russia:
strategic partners or squabbling neighbours?" Putin, she said,
saw the EU "as a way of strengthening the domestic economy through
trade and, to a lesser extent, investment".
more quotes
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European
Parliament elections 2004
How
will you vote?
From June
10 to 13, citizens in the 25 EU member-states will elect a new European
Parliament – an institution with real powers whose decisions
affect all of our lives.
Click on the link below to take part in the online
poll
organised by The Centre
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