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Transnational challenges

There is a growing overlap between the EU’s internal and external security problems. Terrorism, organised crime and unregulated migration not only pose a threat to European internal security, but also have a serious impact on the stability of Europe’s immediate neighbourhood. Very often, they find their roots in conflicts and instability further abroad in Africa or Asia.

For some time, the European Union has been active in international debates on the governance of these challenges, and has created new policy instruments of its own. Already in the early 1990s, the EU successfully linked its home-affairs priorities with its Common Foreign and Security Policy. The 2015 migration crisis showed the limits of that approach, and has sparked a new wave of reforms.

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    14April 2016
    Tourism, terrorism and migration
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    As certain Western policies backfire, and revisionist economies like Russia and China flex their muscles, this Brief shows how migration, tourism and terrorism are growing in profile, as well as blurring.

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    12April 2016
    Transatlantic counter-terrorism cooperation
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    Recent terrorist attacks in Europe have strengthened transatlantic counter-terrorism cooperation after trust was shaken by the 2013 revelations by Edward Snowden about American surveillance activities. New initiatives seek to address European data protection concerns while deepening collaboration at the EU-level, primarily through Europol.

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    08March 2016
    The Western Balkans: back in the EU spotlight
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    After several years of being largely absent from the agenda, the Western Balkans is back in focus largely due to the refugee crisis. How has this changed the way in which states from the region deal with each other and with the EU?

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    04March 2016
    Zika: a crisis that bites
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    On 1 February, the World Health Organisation (WHO) declared the Zika virus a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC). Are the health crisis management structures currently in place, not only in Latin America but also in the EU, ready to face this challenge?

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    04March 2016
    For EU eyes only? Intelligence and European security
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    Intelligence support for the EU’s foreign and security policy has developed from being a small cubicle within Javier Solana’s office into dedicated all-source intelligence units. But what challenges still exist in European intelligence cooperation, and what can be done to bolster it further?

  • 03March 2016
    New kids on the CFSP block: the JHA agencies
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    The EU has embarked on a strategy of upgrading its justice and home affairs agencies in order to enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of its foreign and internal security policies. What steps have been taken? And what more can realistically be done?

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    29January 2016
    Syrian refugee flows – and ebbs
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    One common assumption has been that refugees are leaving camps in Jordan and Lebanon due to difficult conditions and moving on through Turkey into the EU. But because of the northward shift of the Syrian conflict, the reality is somewhat different.

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    29January 2016
    Refugees versus terrorists
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    With the suspicion that two newly-registered refugees carried out the November Paris attacks, this Alert explores – and debunks – fears that refugee flows from the Middle East have become a backchannel for terrorists entering Europe.

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    10December 2015
    20 years on: rethinking Schengen
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    Given the radically altered international environment, how can the EU best adapt its border regime? This Brief shows how it will require an innovative response, rather than replicating at an EU level the classical attributes of a national model.

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    10December 2015
    The climate-energy nexus
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    How could the EU help bridge the gap between energy and climate policies? This Alert argues that by doing so there is an opportunity to both improve European energy security in the long term and to make European climate diplomacy more effective.

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