Publications

It is near consensual among Europeans that they need to strengthen the ‘European pillar in NATO’. This study traces the evolution of the concept of the European pillar, delineates potential meaning, and spells out what it would take to operationalize it.

The European Commission’s proposal for the 2028–2034 MFF opens a chance to raise ambition on climate, social, economic and security goals. This framing paper outlines key budget needs, priority areas and governance reforms.

The next MFF proposes centralised National and Regional Partnership Plans, shifting power to national governments and the European Commission. While promising coherence, this risks weaker regional involvement and oversight. 

The 2028–2034 MFF proposal acknowledges social pressures but risks diluting the EU’s social dimension. Social spending is consolidated without a dedicated European Social Fund line, while guarantees are weakened. 

The European Commission’s new MFF proposal introduces five new own resources to fund Next Generation EU debt and modernise EU revenues. This paper assesses the package and argues for a balanced basket of genuine new resources to support EU goals.

The MFF proposal sidelines climate and the environment. This paper assesses the spending target, the Do No Significant Harm principle, and climate and environmental provisions in the proposal’s two largest programmes.

The European Union has many candidates for membership. It is currently conducting negotiations with Albania, North Macedonia, Ukraine, Moldova and Bosnia and Herzegovina. However, the accession processes are complicated. The current policy paper on the reform debate analyses the arguments for and against a rapid enlargement of the EU and provides recommendations for policy-makers.

The EU needs a resolute and coherent common European foreign policy to strengthen its political weight worldwide.The recommendations for action in this paper are to be understood primarily as a call to Member States to make better use of the existing scope for action within the EU treaties.

In order to advance the European energy transition and distribute the costs and benefits more fairly, the EU must find better steering instruments. This policy paper provides recommendations for the necessary acceleration of the European energy transition.

This policy paper makes some suggestions as to how reforms could be possible with and without treaty changes and how the EU can preserve its future viability.

War in Europe, the escalating climate crisis, Europe's position in the global power structure: The EU faces historic challenges. With this issue of the Boell.Thema magazine, we aim to inform about the history and future of the EU.

Critical raw materials and rare earths are of great economic importance for the European Union. This publication reflects the raw materials situation in four neighboring European countries: Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Georgia, and Armenia.

The European Union faces the enormous challenge of having to achieve the necessary climate targets it has set itself, while at the same time increasing industrial competitiveness and ensuring public services of general interest. A sustainable European financial architecture based on three pillars is needed to finance these green-social investments at EU level. It is presented in this policy paper.

Migration from Africa will not only occupy European politics in the future; it is already shaping politics in Africa today and is an important factor for economic development.

The Covid-19 pandemic crystalized the myriad challenges facing the modern world like few crises before it. Its impacts were so far reaching, its insights so diverse, that even the metaphors created to understand it spun off their own field of study.

This report takes a look at metal processing on the basis of six exemplary metals, which are essential to achieve decarbonisation.

The earthquakes that occurred in Turkey on 6 February 2023 are considered the most devastating earthquakes in recent history. On the occasion of the donor conference for the victims of the Kahramanmaraş earthquakes on 20 March 2023, the policy paper by Onur Bahçecik sheds light on the international response to this catastrophe and in particular addresses the political-economic consequences.

The German government has announced it will implement an export ban on certain hazardous pesticides. A draft of the implementation policy will be presented during the spring of 2023.

Well-designed energy bills are a key tool for consumers in the energy transition. The analysis “‘Clean’ Energy Bills for all citizens in the EU; a subject to an examination” aims at registering the content, structure, and format of the electricity bills in EU27, and examine their contribution to consumers’ empowerment to play an active role in the clean energy transition.

Due to the war in Ukraine, grain prices have risen sharply. But a reduction in fallow land in the EU would only have a minor effect on the world market price for grain. Therefore, it would be better to provide financial aid to the most vulnerable countries.

To make Europe a climate-neutral continent by 2050, the European Union needs to work closely with its neighbours, including those in the Eastern Partnership. Ukraine was among the first EU neighbours to announce their readiness to contribute to the European Green Deal.

Many Russian stakeholders no longer fiercely reject the EU’s plans to tax carbon intensive imports, but look at the global decarbonisation efforts more foresightedly. Windows of opportunities for international cooperation appear. However, instead of joining the global shift to renewables, Russia develops its own approach with a strong role for traditional energy sources.

Platforms can empower groups that have previously been silenced. However, platforms also host hateful and illegal content, often targeted at minorities, and content is prone to being unfairly censored by algorithmically biased moderation systems. This report analyzes the current environment of content moderation, particularly bringing to light negative effects for the LGBTIQA+ community, and provides policy recommendations for the forthcoming negotiations on the EU Digital Services Act.