Annual report - 2004

The CER has always championed an outward-looking EU that is aware of its global responsibilities. In several ways the EU is evolving in the right direction: it has enlarged eastwards and still plans to take in more countries; it has started to develop its own security strategy and (albeit modest) military capabilities; and it has established a carbon emissions trading system that offers the rest of the world a model for tackling global warming. Though the EU faces internal problems that may distract it from thinking globally – such as the slow pace of economic reform and the ratification of its constitutional treaty – many trends are positive.