Cooperation

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.

EU-Sri Lanka Relations: From Cooperation to Partnership

On 13 July 2022, after months of heavy protests, protestors stormed the Sri Lankan presidential palace. In what followed, then president Gotabaya Rajapaksa fled and resigned, being promptly replaced by his prime minister, Ranil Wickremesinghe, through a Parliamentary vote. Since the turnover the economic and political situation within Sri Lanka remains delicate. As the island has increasingly become a centre of Sino-Indian rivalries, how can the EU assist its economic and political development and help address the crisis, in order to stabilise the country and avoid it becoming a flashpoint of competing interests.

Read the report of our Conference on “EU-Bangladesh Cooperation: Opportunities and the Bengal Tiger Economy”

Our report of the Conference is out now, feel free to have a look.

What’s Next for EU-Japan Security Cooperation in the Indo-Pacific?

December 2022 was a historic month for Japan’s foreign affairs. By targeting an increase of defence spending from 1% of its annual budget to 2% over the next 5 years and publishing new defence and security strategies, Japan is reacting to Asia’s new regional security environment. With new defence capabilities and a growing willingness to cooperate with “like-minded countries”, it is thereby making headway to become a stronger security actor in the region.

Stagnation in EU-China Economic Relations – What comes next?

The Comprehensive Agreement on Investment (CAI) agreed by China and the EU on 30 December 2020 was described by the

China and the EU in Climate Geopolitics

From the Kyoto Protocol to the Paris Agreement, international gatherings are becoming more frequent. By cooperating on the climate agenda and the transition towards cleaner energy, there is no doubt that China and the EU are key actors in setting the path towards a global greener future. The main question is: how?

Transforming the COVID-19 pandemic crisis into collective SDG actions: The 2020 ESCAP-ENEA multistakeholder forum on sustainable development

2020 has presented the planet with a globalised crisis that has put countries to the test worldwide. In these difficult

The EU Connectivity Strategy: Putting Words into Action

The EU is stepping up its global connectivity efforts, also seeking to offer countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America viable alternatives to China’s ‘Belt and Road Initiative’. But how can the EU Connectivity Strategy be successfully implemented?

Taiwan´s Energy Security: Liquefied Natural Gas, Renewables, and the EU

Taiwan’s energy transition relies on the rapid expansion of liquefied natural gas and renewables. What are the prospects and challenges for Taiwan´s ambitious plans, and how can the EU play a role in this process?