Policy Briefs

Streamlining Trade: Harmonising Customs Along the Trans-Caspian Corridor

The Trans-Caspian Corridor (TCTC) links Europe to the Greater Caspian Region and Central Asia, holding great potential to boost trade and diversify transport routes. Yet, fragmented regulations and limited digitalisation still slow its development. Tools such as eTIR, e-CMR, and Single Window Systems (SWS) can harmonise procedures and streamline cross-border trade. With its strategic location and digital reforms, the Greater Caspian Region stands at the centre of this transformation. Through region-to-region cooperation and interoperable digital frameworks, the EU can help make the TCTC a more efficient, competitive, and sustainable trade route between Europe and Central Asia.

How The EU Can Leverage The Current FTA Negotiations To Secure A Mutually Beneficial CRM Partnership With India

As the EU is set to accelerate on its path toward climate neutrality, technological sovereignty and independence, the European Union’s access to Critical Raw Materials (CRM) poses a pressing structural priority, with CRMs playing fundamental roles in the manufacturing of semiconductors, solar panels, wind turbines, and other essential components of the emergent green and digital economy. Despite this apparent strategic importance, the EU relies on a dangerously bottlenecked import base. With China producing 86% of the world’s rare earth minerals, the EU imports 100% of its supply of heavy rare earth elements (REE) from China. Such a dependency transforms CRMs from merely a supply chain concern into a genuine geopolitical challenge. This policy brief argues that CRM integration into the EU-India FTA would be a strategic necessity for the security of Europe’s industrial future.

Chinese Banks in the EU: Structures, Functions and Regulatory Challenges

Chinese banks have established themselves in the European Union as key players in financing trade, investment, and business activities between Europe and China. Their special institutional structure in the form of the ‘branch-cum-subsidiary’ model, often established in Luxembourg, allows for high financial flexibility, but also brings regulatory tensions. At the same time, new European regulations on banking supervision, investment control, and economic security are changing the framework of their activities within the union. This leads to challenges and new requirements for a balanced and reciprocal design of EU-China financial relations.

The Trans-Caspian Corridor: Understanding the Financial Framework for Attracting and Derisking Foreign Capital

The development of the Greater Caspian region has become a geopolitical imperative for the European Union. The war in Ukraine, instability in the Middle East, and disruptions along the Suez and Red Sea route have brought Central Asia and the Greater Caspian Region into sharper focus for the EU. Due to its wealth of resources of fossil fuels, hydrogen, and Critical Raw Materials (CRMs), the region holds materials which are vital for a number of core elements of the green transition, particularly in the manufacture of battery technology to store green energy. The region holds the potential to serve an essential role in the European Union’s environmental pivot.

The Middle Corridor: EU Connectivity through Infrastructure Digitalisation and a Single Window Environment

Amid global supply chain disruptions and geo-political uncertainty, the Middle Corridor, also known as the Trans-Caspian International Transport Route (TITR), is rapidly redefining how Europe connects with the Asian continent via Central Asia and the Greater Caspian region – offering a faster, more reliable alternative to traditional trade routes. Increasingly emboldened by investment and regional cooperation, this multimodal corridor promises to reduce transit times, bypass existing chokepoints, and drive digital innovation in customs and logistics.

The Trans-Caspian Corridor: Financial Risk Mitigation for Unlocking EU Connectivity with the Greater Caspian Region and Central Asia

Examining the financial mechanisms underpinning the European Union’s engagement in Central Asia, this Policy Brief focuses on the Trans-Caspian Transport Corridor (TCTC) as a strategic infrastructure and trade initiative. It analyses how instruments such as the European Fund for Sustainable Development Plus (EFSD+), the European Investment Bank (EIB), and the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA) are deployed to de-risk private investment, foster sustainable development, and strengthen regional connectivity. By assessing both the opportunities and challenges of EU-backed financing, the study highlights how coordinated investment, regulatory frameworks, and risk mitigation strategies can enhance economic integration, diversify supply chains, and support the EU’s broader geopolitical and green-transition objectives in the Greater Caspian Region.

The Impact of CBAM in the Greater Caspian Region

The EU’s Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) will enter its definitive phase in January 2026, and CBAM tariffs are set to have major ramifications for countries exporting goods to the EU. What will be the impact of CBAM on Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan, also referred to as the Greater Caspian region?

The Middle Corridor’s Reality Check: Advancements and Challenges in Port Infrastructure in the Greater Caspian Region

Recent geopolitical upheavals, including Russia’s war in Ukraine and the escalating Houthi threat in the Red Sea, have reignited interest in the Trans-Caspian International Transport Route (TITR), also known as the ‘Middle Corridor.’ The corridor puts the Caspian Sea and Greater Caspian Region at the centre of transcontinental transport links by offering an alternative to the longer and politically compromised New Eurasian Land Bridge (NELB) or ‘Northern Corridor’ that crosses Russia. This new multimodal ‘Middle’ corridor connects China and Europe by traversing China, Central Asia, the Caspian Sea, the South Caucasus and the Black Sea before reaching the EU in just 15 days. Beyond offering strategic diversification away from Russia and traditional sea routes, the TITR enables the Central Asian and South Caucasus states to foster economic growth and regional development to create robust and efficient logistical networks.

Hungary and Serbia: China’s New Offshore Manufacturing Hubs in the EU?

Chinese greenfield investments in Europe are on the rise, reshaping the landscape of foreign direct investment. Instead of mergers and acquisitions, Chinese companies are increasingly setting up new operations, particularly in Hungary and Serbia. This shift is driven by factors like the EU’s tighter investment screening and China’s strategic focus on long-term market presence. Greenfield investments, especially in sectors like electric vehicles and renewable energy, offer Chinese firms fewer political hurdles, while supporting local economies. How are these investments shaping EU-China relations and offering new opportunities and challenges for European policies?