Eu Archives • Page 2 of 8 • Eyes on Europe

Eastern Partnership: Prospects for a European Future

28 June 2023 Security

[Editorial partnership] When the foreign ministers of Poland and Swedish first proposed the idea for the Eastern Partnership in 2008, the response was somewhat muted. A few months later, Russian tanks entered Georgia after fighting between the country’s military and Russian-backed separatists. Five days of war left hundreds dead and around 200,000 people displaced. Russia quickly recognised the contested regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia as independent republics, despite their international status as part of Georgia.

The Brussels-Madrid-Rabat triangle: Spain’s role in EU-Morocco relations

21 June 2023 International

Mario Vega 9 min

In Spanish diplomacy, there is an unspoken rule which sets Morocco as the first country to be visited by the newly appointed Prime Minister of Spain, a tradition that Pedro Sánchez broke in 2018. Diplomatic relations between the two neighbours have gone through one of their worst crises, although since the beginning of February 2023, it seems their diplomatic relations are partially back on track, after important concessions were made on both sides.

Fortress Europe, anti-immigration propaganda and the future of the European migration and asylum system: an interview with MEP Pietro Bartolo

19 June 2023 Migration

Sara Lolli 10 min

The 3rd of October 2023 will mark the tenth anniversary of the tragic Lampedusa shipwreck that provoked the death of at least 368 people trying to get across the Central Mediterranean Sea. This event, prefiguring the major migration waves of 2015-2016, has impacted Europe, highlighting the perilous travel conditions migrants still face today at the European external borders, from the Mediterranean to the Balkans.

Les groupes pro-migrants ont-ils vraiment une voix dans la réforme du RAEC de l’UE?

16 June 2023 Migration

Johanna Tirinelli 7 min

Selon l’Organisation Internationale de la Migration en 2015, plus d’un million de migrants sont arrivés sur les côtes de l’UE. Cette hausse du flux migratoire fuyant la guerre, la famine, la répression, fut qualifiée de « crise migratoire » ou de « crise des réfugiés » dans les médias. Cette crise a mis en évidence les limites du Régime d’Asile Européen Commun, établi en 1999 pour le traitement égalitaire des demandeurs d’asile. Différentes ONGs ont dénoncé ses déficiences structurelles et demandé une réforme substantielle et drastique du RAEC.

Returning to the European Union’s roots: the European project’s colonial dimension

14 June 2023 European Union

Jeanne Fabreguettes 4 min

In school textbooks, university courses on European integration, as well as in political and institutional discourses, the creation of the European political project is consistently , and exclusively, presented as a peace process. This predominant narrative is globally widespread and no serious dissenting voices seem to have emerged, so far, to challenge it. This article offers a retrospective analysis on the genesis of the European community and its colonial power project.

L’Union Européenne, entité exportatrice de l’Etat de droit au-delà de ses frontières

12 June 2023 European Foreign Policy

Ludivina Ordonez 8 min

L’UE a souvent été considérée comme manquant de pouvoir coercitif et de souveraineté, l’empêchant d’être une « véritable puissance » sur la scène internationale. Toutefois, l’UE a pu s’affirmer sur le plan international, grâce à sa capacité à imposer certains de ses modèles et influencer la conduite d’autres acteurs internationaux. Parmi ses valeurs, l’UE tend notamment à promouvoir celle de l’Etat de droit.