European Union (EU)

Photo: Several wind turbines stand in a field next to an oil pump. Overlaid is a text box with the title Trump 2.0, green transition, and transatlantic climate action by Rachel Tausendfreund, Mareike Moraal, and Loyle Campbell.

Trump 2.0, Green Transition, and Transatlantic Climate Action

Published: 4 March 2025
E-Paper
This paper explores how the EU and its member states could adjust their climate policies based on expected Trump administration positions regarding two key elements of global climate action, and possible European responses along the variables of unity and decisiveness.
Illustration: Ein Titelblatt mit EU-Sternen auf blauem Hintergrund. Text: „Rebuilding Credibility in EU Enlargement Policy“ von Marina Vulović.

Rebuilding Credibility in EU Enlargement Policy

Published: 26 November 2024
Policy Paper
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.
policy-paper-shaping-a-future-fit-common-agricultural-policy

Shaping a Future-Fit Common Agricultural Policy

Published: 26 November 2024
Policy Paper
For more than half a century, the European Union's agricultural policy has focussed primarily on increasing agricultural productivity and the cost-effective production of food. This policy paper provides recommendations for action that are largely possible without amending the EU treaties.
Illustration: Titelseite eines Policy Papers der Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung. Titel: „Strengthening the EU's Global Capacity to Act“.

Strengthening the EU’s Global Capacity to Act

Published: 7 November 2024
Policy Paper
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.
Cover eines Policy Papers der Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung und Deutschen Umwelthilfe. Titel: "Accelerating the European Energy Transition".

Accelerating the European Energy Transition

Published: 15 October 2024
Policy Paper
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.
Illustration: Title page of a policy paper by the Heinrich Böll Foundation. Title: "A Democratic Approach to EU Reform". Background with yellow ballot boxes.

A Democratic Approach to EU Reform

Published: 8 October 2024
Policy Paper
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.
GPT  Illustration: A hand places a yellow star into a transparent box with more stars on a blue background. Text: "Europe – A Promise."

Böll.Thema 1/24: Europe

Published: 29 August 2024
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.
The Raw Materials Situation in European Countries Cover

The Raw Materials Situation in Neighboring European Countries

Published: 24 July 2024
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.
Cover Shaping the EUs Financial Architecture for the Future

Shaping the EU's Financial Architecture for the Future

Published: 15 July 2024
Policy Paper
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.
Mini-Busse am «Phase» oder Bus Hauptbahnhof, Kampala, Uganda.

Contested Mobility Norms in Africa

Published: 11 April 2024
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.
Cover: Democratic Corrosion at the Heart of Europe

Democratic Corrosion at the Heart of Europe

Published: 23 January 2024
E-Paper
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.
Cover von Ukraine and the European Green Deal

Ukraine and the European Green Deal

Published: 20 December 2021
E-Paper
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.

The state of content moderation for the LGBTIQA+ community and the role of the EU Digital Services Act

Published: 21 June 2021
E-paper
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.

Algorithmic misogynoir in content moderation practice

Published: 21 June 2021
E-paper
Existing content moderation practices, both algorithmically-driven and people-determined, are rooted in white colonialist culture. Black women’s opinions, experiences, and expertise are suppressed and their online communication streams are removed abruptly, silently, and quickly. This paper explores algorithmic misogynoir in content moderation and makes the case for the regular examination of the impact of content moderation tactics on Black women and other minoritized communities.
Cover E-Paper Between Hard and Soft Power

Between Hard and Soft Power

Published: 9 June 2021
E-Paper
Although political debates were for the most part overshadowed by the Corona crisis at the beginning of 2021, this E-Paper wants to address the question of how the European Union could find its place in a more competitive world. The buzzwords of this debate were the concepts of strategic autonomy and strategic sovereignty of the EU.
Cover EU-China Comprehensive Agreement on Investment

EU-China Comprehensive Agreement on Investment

Published: 9 December 2020
Study
China and the EU are currently negotiating a new, far-reaching investment treaty called the EU-China Comprehensive Agreement on Investment (CAI). This scoping paper focuses on the potential risks for the EU from enshrining rights for Chinese investors in Europe in an international investment treaty.

From «Paymaster of Europe» to «Shaper of Europeʼs future»

Published: 21 May 2019
E-Paper
Although the European Union is facing enormous political challenges, Germany has shown little initiative in European politics in recent years. Proposed reforms of other member states, such as France, have been mostly opposed on the grounds that «the German taxpayers» must not be even further burdened. This study investigates the factual and popular basis of this narrative.