Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine has ended the post-Cold War European security order, creating new realities in countries neighbouring the EU and shattering illusions in several member states about the Kremlin’s true intentions in wider Europe. By granting candidate status to Ukraine and Moldova and a European perspective to Georgia, the EU has rejected a Russian sphere of influence and instead determined where its future borders should lie. But this decision has not yet led to policies tailored to effectively respond to a geopolitical context which also sees China and other state actors competing for influence. The Eastern Partnership still needs to be fitted with security and connectivity components. In the accession process, existing formats had already reached their limits with, inter alia, the obstructionism by certain member states that is linked to the divisive issue of EU internal reform. This has cost the EU a lot of credibility in the Western Balkans and will take years to resolve. REUNIR, a project with 12 partners from across Europe, examines how the EU can strengthen its foreign and security toolboxes to bolster the resilience and transformation of (potential) candidate countries in a new age of international relations. REUNIR’s foresight approach takes the fundamental uncertainty and openness of alternative futures seriously. Adding the effects of ‘protean power’ unleashed in unforeseen circumstances to a multi-disciplinary approach to the research of the EU’s ‘control power’ in relations with strategic rivals, REUNIR empirically assesses foreign threats to the military, socio-economic and democratic resilience of 9 neighbouring countries, determines capability shortfalls, maps local perceptions of the EU’s support and political perspectives inside the EU on neighbourhood relations. Outlining scenarios up to 2035, REUNIR offers evidence-based policy recommendations to mitigate malign foreign interference and strengthen the EU’s external action.

Euro-Mediterranean policies, as well as research on them, have been characterized by a Euro-centric approach based on a narrow geopolitical construction of the Mediterranean. Moreover, stakeholders, policy instruments, and policy issues have been defined from a European standpoint, marginalizing the perspectives and needs of local states and people, and ignoring the role played by new and powerful regional and global actors. In an increasingly multipolar world, overcoming this Euro-centric approach is key for Europe to play a more meaningful role in the region. Thus, MEDRESET aims to reset our understanding of the Mediterranean and develop alternative visions for a new partnership and corresponding EU policies, reinventing a future role for the EU as an inclusive, flexible, and responsive ‘actor’ in the region. This will be achieved through an integrated research design which is in three phases: it 1) de-constructs the EU construction of the Mediterranean, 2) counters it by mapping the region on the geopolitical level and in four key policy areas (political ideas, agriculture and water, industry and energy, migration and mobility) alongside a three-dimensional framework (stakeholders, policy instruments, policy issues), which directly feeds into 3) a reconstruction of a new role for the EU, enhancing its ability to exert reflexive leadership and thus its relevance in the region. Embedded in an interdisciplinary research team, as well as in a civil society and media network, MEDRESET evaluates the effectiveness and potential of EU policies by investigating whether current policies still match the changing geopolitical configuration of the Mediterranean area. The perceptions of EU policies and the reasons for their successes or failures are assessed by surveying top-down and bottom-up stakeholders on both shores of the Mediterranean. Country-tailored policy recommendations for the EU will be given for four key countries: Egypt, Lebanon, Morocco, and Tunisia.

The ENGAGE (“Envisioning a New Governance Architecture for a Global Europe”) project will advance the goals that are aligned with the European Commission’s push to have a stronger and more united European voice in the world. ENGAGE will answer how the EU can effectively and sustainably harness all of its tools in a joined-up external action, with an eye to meeting key strategic challenges and becoming a stronger global actor. Our contribution to this ambitious quest will be anchored to a comprehensive and detailed analysis of all dimensions of EU external action, which will go even beyond the call’s requirements. ENGAGE brings together a consortium that provides first-class academic expertise of European and international scholars who cover the entire scope of the EU’s external action, involving many practitioners with vast experience in relevant governmental bodies. Our project will be based on 11 Work Packages (WPs). Two initial WPs will provide an analytical grip on the contextual hurdles, both international and domestic, that the EU faces in the implementation of its external policy. This will in turn inform the other core research WPs of ENGAGE, which are divided into two interconnected clusters. The first cluster will aim to revamp the governance architecture of CSDP, CFSP as a whole, and other dimensions of EU external action (including peripheral and sectoral diplomacies), while the second cluster will aim to improve the performance of the EU’s external action when engaging with strategic partners, its neighbourhood and conflict scenarios. The contextual WPs and the two clusters will converge in a strategic WP – the cornerstone of ENGAGE – that will produce a White Paper for Joined-up, Coherent, Sustainable, and Effective External Action. All of ENGAGE’s deliverables and recommendations will be targeted at policymakers across the EU, and seek to spark an inclusive and representative EU-wide conversation.