On Monday 9 September, the EU Institute for Security Studies (EUISS) proposed ten “ambitious yet actionable” ideas to be implemented by the future European Commission and EU High Representative in order to reboot the EU’s foreign policy.
It proposes that the EU must move beyond the European Neighbourhood Policy and its one-size-fits-all approach and build tailor-made partnerships in the South. It must also counter Russian influence in the East, by increasing its power of attraction and supporting partners’ integration and resilience. The EU must also recalibrate its relations with China.
The institute believes that a Council for the Defence of Europe “composed of EU leaders” should be created “to take the necessary strategic decisions and enable the EU to respond effectively to a world of integrated threats”. Opening up the Common Foreign and Security Policy to the countries of the Western Balkans as a first step towards EU membership and establishing targeted partnerships with selected groups of countries, rather than investing in broad but vague multilateral frameworks, are also proposed.
The Institute puts forward the idea of rethinking the missions of the Common Security and Defence Policy by focusing on the protection of maritime routes and the resolution of crises in the immediate neighbourhood. It also proposes training soldiers in Ukraine and strengthening energy resilience through innovation in the Baltic. Finally, it believes that economic resources must be mobilised to dissuade China from starting a war in East Asia.
See the report: https://aeur.eu/f/ddn (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)