The UK-EU summit last month was an important step towards closer co-operation and a strategic partnership. Both sides now need to turn that ambition into detailed sectoral negotiations with a clear timescale.
The EU digital rulebook has grown rapidly in recent years, becoming cumbersome and sometimes hampering trade. The forthcoming digital regulatory package is an opportunity to simplify the rules.
The EU should reinforce the World Bank and International Monetary Fund to stave off a destabilising financing crunch for many emerging and developing economies.
Both elections tested democratic resilience and, while confirming the status quo on most EU policies, showed that anti-establishment sentiment is here to stay.
Integrating EU candidate countries into the EU ETS would incentivise them to decarbonise their emissions-intensive electricity mix and heavy industries. Gradual integration would soften the economic impact of a high carbon price.
Enlarging the energy union to include EU candidate countries would benefit both current and future EU member-states. Expanding the EU energy market would support energy decarbonisation, security and affordability.
The Helsinki Final Act played a key role in ending the Cold War, but the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), to which it gave birth, has progressively been sidelined in Europe’s security architecture.
Neither an ‘EU-plus’ nor a ‘NATO-minus’ could fill all the gaps that would be left in European security if the US radically reduced its commitment to NATO.
The Helsinki Final Act played a key role in ending the Cold War, but the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), to which it gave birth, has progressively been sidelined in Europe’s security architecture.
