CIFE Policy Papers 2025
Deciding the EU’s Strategic Readiness - Public Private Partnerships and Organisational Learning in Defence, Megghi Pengili
Abstract: The EU White Paper calls for Member States to enhance strategic readiness through collective defence and public-private partnerships (PPPs), which improve the defence ecosystem and foster organisational learning. Reports by Niinistö and Draghi (2024) highlight the need for further understanding of PPPs’ impact on defence preparedness.This analysis explores the rise of PPPs as a knowledge hub in the EU defence context and their role in driving transformation towards enhanced readiness.
Pragmatic, Gradual, Geopolitical... What’s Left of the Ambitions of the European Union’s Enlargement? , Florent Marciacq
Abstract: Once regarded as a key foreign policy instrument of the European Union (EU), the enlargement process is increasingly hampered by geopolitical tensions, internal divisions and longstanding malfunctions. The new impetus that followed the invasion of Ukraine by the Russian Federation in 2022 has eroded. Gradual integration is now being presented as a pragmatic solution to maintain the momentum of enlargement, yet it risks weakening the European project by prioritising open-end economic logics over democratic aspirations, political unification and progressive alliances. Confronted with challenges posed by regional autocrats, as well as Russia, China, and even the Trump administration, the Union must clarify its ambitions and assert a coherent political vision if it wishes to remain a credible and influential actor.
European Hydrogen and Industrial Policy: A Great Reset in 2025?, Jean Buffiere
Abstract: Is Europe's hydrogen strategy facing a pivotal moment? Despite ambitious policies, rising costs and regulatory hurdles have stalled industrial deployment. This policy paper examines whether 2025 will bring a strategic reset - or a recalibration of Europe’s green hydrogen ambitions.
The UN Pact for the Future: Last Call to Save Multilateralism, Christian Manahl
Abstract: Last September, UN member states adopted a Pact which acknowledges our responsibility for the present and future as the world faces existential threats. Controversies during the process of adoption reflect a fractured international system and foreshadow a difficult implementation. This is compounded by populist trends on both sides of the North Atlantic. However, a cynical surrender to narrow-minded power politics will not resolve the tremendous socio-economic, environmental and security challenges ahead of us, but will only serve to exacerbate them. Future generations will judge today’s political leaders – and today’s electorate in the big democracies – by the choices they make and by their resolve to implement the Pact that they have signed up to.
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