Associate Research Fellow Katarína Svitková writes about challenges facing cities today, tracing the concept of urban resilience throughout the last decade, explored in her recently published book (Resilience and Urban Governance).
Trade with third countries is the major component of the EU’s foreign policy, serving as a critical economic, diplomatic and geopolitical tool. As such, the EU is eager to green this area of its activity via a host of policies, one such being the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM). Serving essentially as a form of carbon tax on goods imported into the EU, the CBAM aims to instigate more climate friendly production of goods in third countries. In simple terms, the CBAM would, as an incentive for global action against climate change, tax goods imported from countries with less ambitious climate policies.
Topic:
Climate Change, Borders, Tax Systems, and Carbon Emissions
This April, the EU has unveiled and adopted a brand-new long-term 2021 Sahel strategy, which should reflect the turbulent development and better coordinate the multiple policies and instruments the EU pursues in the region. Does it signal a notable change in EU’s course of action in Sahel? How does it relate to the ‘pragmatist turn’ in the EU’s foreign policy? And what particular issues do the three CSDP missions face?
In his policy paper, our research fellow Vít Havelka provides an overview of the current stage of preparations for the Czech Presidency and specifically elaborates on what topics the Czech Republic could choose as its priorities. Methodologically, the paper is divided into three separate parts, corresponding to three different levels of the program structure: political priorities, triadic priorities, and public service priorities.
Agathe Helluin has written a Policy Brief on "A New Start on Migration": this is how the European Commission described the new pact on migration and asylum presented at the 2020 State of the Union speech in September. This new pact undoubtedly captures the expectation that the EU will fully reshape its migration policy by recognising its limits and shortcomings.
Topic:
Migration, European Union, Borders, Asylum, and European Commission
The issues of carbon leakage and competitiveness have recently become major topics of concern for policy makers and stakeholders involved in decarbonisation, as international commitments of the European Union (EU) on climate change are moving higher on the agenda. The much-needed target of reaching climate neutrality by 2050 has led to increased interest, and urgency, in examining options to address the risk of carbon leakage as well as measures to prevent it from happening.
Topic:
Climate Change, European Union, Borders, Manufacturing, Carbon Tax, and Carbon Emissions
Vít Havelka, Katerina Davidova, and Danielle Piatkiewicz
Publication Date:
11-2021
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
Europeum Institute for European Policy
Abstract:
The institutional year 2020/2021 was strongly influenced by the COVID-19 pandemic, which not only took over most of the agenda, but also influenced the functioning of the EU institutions as such. The European Council and COREPER became the most significant players, as the regular Council meetings were predominantly held online. This constellation had an impact on the EU policy ownership of the Czech ministers, who were simultaneously forced to deal with the deteriorating domestic situation and upcoming elections.
Topic:
Politics, Elections, European Union, Domestic Policy, and COVID-19
Today, Japan remains an important international trading partner of the EU. Following China, Japan is the EU’s second-most important trading partner in Asia. According to experts from the European Commission, the Economic Research Institute for ASEAN and East Asia and the University of Pavia, the EU-Japan EPA is a success because it is a great example of a higher degree of economic integration that can put pressure on other countries to feel obliged to adhere to free trade rules rather than protectionism.
Topic:
Economics, Treaties and Agreements, European Union, Partnerships, and Trade
Our Jana Juzová, Alexandra Ilková, and Ondřej Pešek collaborated on the report of EU-Western Balkans Summit and its consequences. The conference took place in Carolinum on November 5, 2021. The speakers discussed relations between the European Union and Western Balkans and ways how to get the EU enlargement agenda back on track from the state of a deep crisis.
Topic:
European Union, Regional Integration, and Conference
More than anything, 2020 will be remembered for fighting against the world-wide Covid-19 pandemic which has reshaped all of our societies in dramatic ways. Once again, it has highlighted a latent conflict between nation-states and sovereignty, real or perceived, on one hand, and international, if not supranational, cooperation and multilateralism on the other. The crisis exacerbated existing conflicts between nationalists and national conservatives, prominently predisposed towards isolationism, exemplified most acutely in Trump’s America First agenda, and progressives and liberals on the other hand arguing for deepening integration, strengthening multilateralism, and international cooperation to tackle global crises. The US elections became emblematic of this wider, more fundamental struggle, as well as the societal polarization that, to varying degrees, haunts the rest of the developed world. Yet, with a Trump soundly rejected in a landslide election loss, one can wonder whether his loss portends similar rejections of populism and national conservatism across the globe.
The 2020 US presidential election was unprecedented, fevered, divisive, and emotional for various reasons. Firstly, the Republican ticket of incumbent President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence was defeated. Secondly, Joe Biden obtained the largest share of the people’s vote against his opponent and the highest turnout in the last one hundred years was reached in this year’s election, despite the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, referring to an increased concern about future direction of the US. And lastly, as Biden won the election with flying colours, the whole world is now contemplating what will change. Not only on the domestic level, but also the international one.
Topic:
Climate Change, Multilateralism, and Presidential Elections
Political Geography:
Europe, North America, Czech Republic, and United States of America