Europe & Transatlantic Relations

At the southern border of “Fortress Europe”, the Mediterranean has turned into a graveyard. The current migrant crisis in Europe is about more than a risk to the EU’s reputation. It strikes at the core of the EU’s founding values.  A continuation of its half-hearted response to the migration crisis is out of question.

The Eastern Partnership summit in Riga has been tagged by the hosting Latvian minister of foreign affairs a “survival summit”. This implied that EU leaders might propose decisive actions to intensify relations with the Eastern Partnership countries in light of the Ukraine crisis. But to the disappointment of some of the Eastern European and South Caucasus countries, this did not happen.

We spoke with Reinhard Bütikofer, Member of the European Parliament and co-chair of the European Green Party, about thriving populism in Europe, SYRIZA's election victory in Greece and possible political and economic consequences for the European Union.

In July 2013, the EU and the USA started negotiations the created the biggest global Free Trade agreement, the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP). The HBS European Union has created the TTIP Index, providing a resource for anyone interested in learning more about the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership to educate themselves and to create a higher level transparency.

Nearly one year after the Maidan protests shook the very core of Ukraine’s political order, opposing narratives of the revolution and the unfolding war in Eastern Ukraine continue to shape the public debate. These discussions do not only determine how the conflict will go down in our history books. They inform our response to the war in Ukraine by paving the way to more or less confrontational approaches toward Russia.

We spoke with Parliamentarian and President of the Greens in the European Parliament, Rebecca Harms, about the future of Ukraine after the parliamentary elections, the external challenges the country is facing, and the responsibilities the EU has towards Ukraine.

We spoke to Marieluise Beck, Member of the German Bundestag, about the public mood in war-torn Ukraine, Germany’s hesitant stance towards Putin, and the track record of the transatlantic partnership in responding to the crisis.

The Middle East is burning and, as usual, all eyes rest on Washington. The US bears a considerable share of responsibility for the current crisis. But neither Schadenfreude nor a “we told you so” approach are a viable foreign policy strategy, especially in the wake of the breathtaking costs in human lives. What, then, is Germany willing and capable to contribute to the crisis management in Iraq? The diffuse reactions by German politicians across the political spectrum serve as a case in point for a tentative process of political reorientation currently under way.

At the opening event of our 15th Annual Foreign Policy Conference in Berlin, international guests discussed whether German foreign policy is ready to respond appropriately to current challenges.

On May 23, HBF co-organized a panel discussion with Brookings and the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung to assess Germany's new foreign policy and the challenges presented to it by the crisis in Ukraine.